Of Puppets and Love
by Mystic Shadow Demon
Summary: Hoshi, a one-armed girl due to a tragic event, gets kidnapped by the Akatsuki! Join her as she lives her life in the notorious Akatsuki. But what happens if she accidentally falls in love with a certain puppet master?     SasoriOC / Mild AkatsukiOC
1. Prologue

Hey guys, this is my first story on the site so sorry if it sucks. Basically this story is about a one armed girl who was very powerful before she lost her arm, and somehow gets kidnapped by the Akatsuki. Hope you guys have fun reading the story~

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the Naruto / Naruto Shippuuden characters sadly =[. I do however own my OC, Arai Hoshi (Last, First name, meaning Wild Star) and Misaki Suzu. Also I own the plot, please note that I did come up with the story by myself. So if you're one of those people who think I'm copying from the Naruto characters who have lost their limbs, I'm not. So please refrain from saying that.

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><p>"<em>Ugly freak! Why don't you just get out of our village? No one likes you here!" a couple of children screamed.<em>

_I shot them a glare as I quickened my pace. Soon they began to follow, taunting and insulting me with every single step they took._

_I soon grew tired of their childish name calling and turned around, ready to tell them off. But what happened next caught me off guard. As I turned, a rock hit my left eye. I fell to the ground, but before my body completely fell forward, I caught myself by propping my right leg, supporting my whole body._

"_Ha ha!" the children laughed._

_They soon began pelting me with other small but sharp rocks that they picked up from the ground. My hands immediately went towards my left eye as I hissed in pain. The blood began to drip from the eye down my pale face as it fell to the ground, creating a small pool of red liquid. When the pelting of the rocks soon got worse, I hurriedly ran towards the woods, to a waterfall to wash off my eye, and hopefully lose them._

"_Hey! Get the fuck back here! Where do you think you're going? We're not done yet!" came the voices of the sadistic children._

_They quickly ran after me and caught up to me before I could reach the said destination._

"_Damn," I cursed under my breath._

_Instead of where I was hoping to get to, we ended at the top of the mountains. The mountains were steep and surrounded by of heavy boulders. The ground was slippery so I couldn't get away easily, especially with an injured eye. As I frantically looked around for an escape route, they slowly came closer towards me. I jumped back instinctively, but they still came closer. Soon I began backing away until my back felt a hard, rocky surface. I pondered over the thought of just killing these children. But then I'd be accused of murder and be exiled. So that plan was a failure._

"_Dead end. You have no where else to go," they grinned sadistically._

_I couldn't help but hate myself for not being cautious and getting caught by these low lives. If only I could just wipe them out. But I knew they wouldn't stand a chance against me. So I was forced to stay put and take the pain. And they knew that. Slowly they came again, this time I sunk back like a cowardly mouse trapped by the cunning cat. They began to crack their knuckles, preparing to beat me. I closed my eyes shut, waiting for them to land the first hit. Before they could, the ground before us shook and we all fell to our knees._

"_Damn it! Does this have to happen now?" one of the boys yelled._

_The ground slowly made a cracking sound as well as splitting apart. The split hurriedly cracked more, trying to reach out to us. Soon the crack was splitting into different directions. Some of the children started to run away while some stayed, determined on making me suffer. We were all surprised when the crackling sound stopped. Most of them were relieved. But the look of horror on their faces soon returned when the ground before us broke, making us fall down towards the forest below the mountains, towards our doom._

"_Tasukete! Dareka? Daremo?_ **(1)**_" a few girls from the group yelled._

_Soon we all fell to the ground, head first. Just when I was about to get up, the ground we were standing on from a few seconds ago came crashing down like meteors. I hurriedly tried to get away as fast as possible before I was buried. Turns out I was a second too late, my left arm got caught. I tried pulling it out with all my might, but the arm was stuck, it was between two boulders. Suddenly I heard a girl._

"_You! You did this! How dare you kill my ototo_**(2)**_!" screamed a whiny girl._

_I looked back to see whose voice it was. The girl was blonde with her hair up in pigtails. Her green eyes looked dangerously murderous. She had a kunai in her right hand._

"_What?" I questioned, dumbfounded._

_She pointed at a boy that looked like her, except in a small boy version. His face was pale as blood dripped from his mouth. He had a few scratches on his face and arms, his whole body in between the boulders that had just fell._

"_You killed him! You caused this avalanche! It's your fault he died!" she screeched._

"_What? I didn't do this. How's it my fault that –" I began to say but was cut off by her harsh voice._

"_Don't make excuses! I know it was you. Now you're going to pay for your mistake!"_

_I sighed at her ignorance, covering my eyes with my right hand. Big mistake. She charged at me with a loud yet annoying battle cry, kunai pinpointed for my heart. My eyes widened and I hastily tried to run away. When I was about to run at full speed, I was pulled back by something. Oh right…my left arm is still stuck in the boulders…Oh shit._

"_DIE!" she screamed venomously._

_I closed my eyes and moved just a little further to my right. A bloody murder scream shot out of my throat as my left arm was cut off. Blood was rushing through and spilling out of the open wound. The blood created a pool of blood from where I was standing and some blood splattered my face and clothes. The boulders and the girl along with her kunai were all stained with my blood. I took one long last look at the girl before I passed out. Her whole face was wicked, darkened by aggression. Her green eyes were replaying my suffering, her breathing heavy from the adrenaline about the thought of killing me, her lips forming a huge blood lusting grin, tongue licking my blood off of her stained lips._

_**Ring ring**_ the alarm clock rang. My eyes quickly fluttered open while I nervously jumped up to a sitting position in my Queen sized bed. My breathing quickly hastened as my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. Beads of sweat dripped down my forehead and chin. Taking in deep breaths, I tried to calm myself down. My azure eyes drooped down as my right hand met my left shoulder. Blood dripped down as my nails dug into the pale skin, staining my white bed. I gritted my teeth, hating to feel empty space to where my left arm is suppose to be, but instead being replaced by air. My eyes narrowed at the thought of my missing limb.

"That bitch got what she deserved..." I growled.

My train of thought returned to my dream, the dream about the moment where I lost my left arm. That dream seemed to be haunting me for these past few days. It kept reoccurring every single night now. After I passed out, the girl was about to kill me when an unknown savior saved me by stopping her, slitting her throat and killing her in the process. My savior then carried me back to an abandoned but great house nonetheless, the house that I currently live in. Basically my savior dumped me on the bed. When my eyes slowly opened, a head of messy orange hair came into view. Before I could say thank you, he turned around smiled at me before completely disappearing.

"I wish I could thank him..." I whispered softly, feeling grateful for the stranger who saved my life.

Soon the thought led to the children in the dream. They were the village's children, who hated me. I guess you could say they were jealous since I became an ANBU when I was 7, and they treated me like a freak since I have no parents. They always did harsh pranks on me and taunted me everyday of my life. Making me miserable was like their only purpose in life. Most of them died in that incident though.

"Karma's a bitch ain't it?" I grinned to myself, getting up from bed.

After picking out my casual outfit from my closet, I proceeded to the bathroom to wash up. I grimaced as the mirror reflected a girl whose left eye was all scarred and scratched up. I hated it when people always stared at my left eye like it's some contagious disease, so because of this, after I finished washing up I put on my black bandana-like eye patch with a white skull on it, because of its bandana-like state, the patch itself was a triangular shape while the material was soft cotton. Then I took a shower, after I finished I put on black baggy cargo pants with a plain white T-Shirt with a large, black, unzipped hoodie. I left my long, black flowing hair the way it is.

Since I lost my arm, I lost my ability to perform any jutsus anymore, since jutsus require hand signs. So I got stripped of my title as an ANBU, also due to the fact that I couldn't even defend myself against "mere children" (even though I was one myself). Therefore, I was just a mere civilian like any other "normal" people in the village. Though I don't have any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, I do practice Taijutsu for protection. You never know when something might happen, might as well be prepared.

I walked down to the kitchen and grabbed an apple with my jobs in mind. I worked for the flower shop that a civilian in my village owns as a part time job as well as part of the research department for the Mizukage. I bit into my apple, thinking about trivial things such as friends. I always wondered what it would be like to have many friends, seeing as how I had only one due to my missing arm, and how people think about me also missing my left eye because of the eye patch. Also, after the accident that day, people thought that _I_ killed the kids. They didn't seem to believe me when I always said it was an accident. The only people who actually believed me was my best friend Misaki Suzu.

"Oh well...at least one person believing me is better than none..." I sighed as I tossed my finished apple in the garbage can and headed out to do my job.

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong>Help us! Someone? Anyone? means "Tasukete! Dareka? Daremo?" in Japanese

**(2) -**Little brother means "Ototo" in Japanese

'kay guys that was Part 1 of my new Series. Hope ya liked it. Please review to tell me what you think and a little helpful criticism would be nice too. And sorry if it sounds cliché. I'll try as best as possible to make it original.


	2. Introducing: Suzu Misaki

Second chapter peepz! This is basically just an introduction of Hoshi's "best friend" and beginning of the Akatsuki (kinda...not really...don't worry, we'll get there, someday...). Anyways, hope you guys like the chapter.

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><p>Misaki Suzu, everyone's dream girl. If anyone was perfect, it would be her. She was graceful, beautiful, generous, kind-hearted, powerful, everything you'd wish for in a person. Her long, silky blonde hair trailed behind her as she gently pushed open the door to the flower shop. Her heavenly emerald eyes darted across the shop until they landed on me.<p>

"Ohayou **(1)** Arai-chan!" she greeted me with a smile to die for.

"Ohayou Misaki-san..." I faked a smile.

To be honest, she was my "best friend" because she was my only friend. In reality, she didn't really like me, in fact, she just pitied me. I could tell through those emerald green eyes of hers. I used to be an ANBU with her, before the tragic event of my arm. She and I were evenly matched in power, I might have even been stronger. But after the event, that all went downhill. We always competed against each other. She was my rival, we desperately tried to best the other. But after all these years, she became further and further away from my reach, while I got dragged behind further and further, unable to catch up and left in the darkness, alone. All because of that stupid missing arm.

"So how'd that S-Rank mission go?" I asked, not really interested at all.

"Oh it was so tiring...I really needa break these days. They're working me to the bone." she said as she massaged her shoulders.

I leaned on the counter with my head resting on my arm.

"Well at least it's better than being stuck here all day, with nothin' to do." I said, smiling sadly.

She looked at me with concern; pity was written all over her face. I chuckled slightly, but then sighing afterwards.

"Well, since you "have nothin' to do", wanna come and have dinner with me tonight?" she offered.

"Sure, why not?" I sighed, thinking to myself, 'At least I won't be eating alone tonight.'

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Rosy red violent mixed with peachy orange splattered across the horizon, creating a beautifully painted sunset. Violet fluffy clouds floated by. I stared at them with interest and curiosity, also with jealousy. I know, it must sound pretty lame to be jealous of the sky and clouds. But they were always changing, never the same, always having a new adventure ahead of them, while I was being stuck to work in Ino's family's flower shop. Now who'd want that? It must be pretty amazing to lie on the clouds, always staring at the beautiful sky.

Suzu stared at me as if I was a freak.

"What're you staring at?" she asked.

"The sky." I grunted, not wanting to answer a stupid question like that.

She gave me another weird look. I shrugged it off. Not much people can understand. That just goes to show you how narrow-minded most humans really are.

"So, where do you wanna eat?"

"Hn. Wherever's fine..."

"Okay then. How about that new shop that just opened up?" she grinned.

"Sure..." and we began walking towards the said shop.

And so our walk to the restaurant began. We just chatted, nothing serious, just random things like her missions and whatnot.

"It was so frightening fighting him. I would NEVER want to encounter that again. He was-"

**BOOM!**

Shrieks and little children crying could be heard. Overprotective mothers rushed to carry their little mons- I mean children, to safety. I almost tumble back due to the violent shake of the earth when that explosive went off.

"Arai-chan!" Misaki-san screamed my name.

She ran over to me and grabbed my hand before I could fall. I sighed with relief, mentally thanking her. She helped me to my feet and before I could say another word, another explosive occurs. This time it was more powerful and exploded some buildings. I watched in horror as the rumble from the buildings crashed onto innocent lives of the villagers. This was just like the accident years ago.

"Are you okay, Arai-chan? You look pale." Misaki-san's voice laced with concern.

"I'm fine." I muttered.

Villagers rushed passed us, hurrying for their safety among others. Just before I could ask Misaki-san to evacuate, an explosive was set off yet again. This time, it created a heavy amount of grey smoke and another mini-earthquake. I got separated from Misaki-san and before I could call out her name, I was coughing and lost in the grey mist of smoke.

Before I could move my feet towards her, I tripped and fell flat on my face. I groaned, trying to prop myself up on the ground to stand up. Unfortunately, before I could, my vision blurred, and soon it became black.

"What's-" I started to say before someone gagged me.

My screams were muffled because of the stupid gag. When I tried to run, I found my hand being twisted behind my back. More muffled screams. Before I could let out yet another scream, I felt someone wrapping their arms around my waist and hurling me. Waiting for the impact of the fall, I was surprised when I landed into a rough, yarn entwined thing. Probably a sack. WAIT! A SACK? AM I BEING KIDNAPPED?

I tried to let out a bloody murder scream this time, then realization just hit me. What's that odd smell inside this sack? Oh shit...sleeping gas...Before I could prevent inhaling any of it, it was too late. And out like a light I went.

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><p><strong>(1)<strong> - Good morning means "Ohayou" in Japanese

Hmm, so Hoishi's been kidnapped. Finally some action. Can you figure out who kidnapped Hoshi? And what could they possibly want with her? Find out next chapter "Kidnapped". Thanks for reading!


	3. Kidnapped

Yay, it's Chapter 3! What's going to happening to Hoshi? Read on to find out. Also, I've decided to add some flashbacks from the previous chapter to refresh your memories. Enjoy~

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><p><em>"I tried to let out a bloody murder scream this time, then realization just hit me. What's that odd smell inside this sack? Oh shit...sleeping gas...Before I could prevent inhaling any of it, it was too late. And out like a light I went."<em>

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Darkness. That was all I saw when I woke up. And man did I have a killer headache. That's not the only thing that's been hurting, someone bound my wrist to a pole and I could feel blood oozing from the tightness of the ropes. Jeez, can they at least be more gentle to the victims they kidnap? I struggled to get the ropes to untie, but alas I failed.

"Stop struggling, it'll only make things worse." an unknown voice echoed. It was deep, so it's a male's.

Like I haven't heard that one before. Might as well get some answers while I'm here.

"Who are you?" I glared, looking around to see where the person might be.

"I, am Pein; leader of Akatsuki. And you are in the Akatsuki base." the voice rang.

"Why am I here? Why'd you kidnap me?" I glared harder.

The voice sighed heavily, as if he were disappointed, "You were not the one we wished to kidnap. Our target was Misaki Suzu. But sadly these _idiots_ failed to do such a simple task." He emphasized "idiots".

I heard a sigh and slight whimpering next to me.

"Well if you're fuckin' disappointed then you never should've assigned us this mission, you Jashin damned ungrateful bitch." stated a rough voice.

"Show some respect Hidan, un." a deep voice said, though not as deep as the first.

So there's 3 males so far. And the rude one is Hidan. And what the fuck is Jashin? Where is the Akatsuki base anyway?

"What do you want with Misaki-san?" I asked.

"We wanted her to join our organization, but sadly these two over here used a smokescreen that they couldn't even see in." the first voice sighed, "so we ended up with _you._"

"Perhaps we could force her to join instead, hm?" the third voice suggested.

Okay, he's on my "People I Hate and Need to Kill" list, and in less than 5 minutes! Congratulations asshole for a new record.

"Perhaps...though I could see barely any use in having a member with only one arm. She can't even use a Jutsu to save her life probably. So she's basically useless." the first voice reasoned.

If only I wasn't being restrained, then I'd show him a thing or two about being useless. Another one to add to the list. Joy...

"Wait..." he stepped forward, and stood in front of me.

My eyes widened. Those...those eyes...the purple, rippled eyes...And, that hair, the shockingly bright orange hair. Could he? Could he be? As I gaped my mouth slightly open, he seemed to have a wave of familiarity wash over him too. His eyes widened a fraction, and soon returned back to the cold, stoic face he had a moment ago. Until that tiny smirk curled on his lips. I don't like this one bit...

"You're..." I started to say.

"The one who saved your life a few years back." His smirk grew, "Saving a life is a big deal, indeed. So therefore, you owe me."

I felt as if I was walking into a mouse trap. Shit, I'm so dead. Kami-sama save me!

"And if I remember correctly, you used to be an ANBU, at such a young age too. You must've been strong to achieve that feat."

The smirk was widening. I think I liked it better when he was stoic. I gulped. "So, seeing as how you owe me...how would you like to work for me as one of the Akatsuki?"

And there goes the mouse trap people. SNAP. And I was the mouse. I've got an _extremely_ bad feeling. This can NOT end well. How did I get myself into this mess?

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><p>This is kinda obvious but if you haven't figured it out, Hidan and Deidara were the ones who bombed the village and kidnapped you. Also you were talking to Pein. So that's for the people who haven't figured it out. Yes I've noticed that the chapters have been getting shorter but I promise the next will be longer because so far the events haven't been that long so yeah. Next time Hoshi will meet the rest of the Akatsuki. As always, I wish you enjoyed the story and thank you for reading it.<p> 


	4. Meet the Akatsuki!

Here's Chapter 4. In this chapter Hoshi'll finally be meeting the Akatsuki. She'll be makin' friends and possibly enemies. But which is which? And how can she tell? Let's hope she'll decide right...or else.

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><p><em>"So, seeing as how you owe me...how would you like to work for me as one of the Akatsuki?"<em>

_And there goes the mouse trap people. SNAP. And I was the mouse. I've got an extremely bad feeling. This can NOT end well. How did I get myself into this mess?"_

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"Deidara, Hidan, show our guest around." and with that, the orange-haired creeper left.

I looked around for them, and they appeared in front of me. The slicked back silver hair albino looked dangerous, and rude. He looked like the type to be sarcastic and foul-mouthed, not to mention rude, rough too. He also wore his Akatsuki cloak open to reveal his chest. I took a guess that he was Hidan. That only left blondie here to be Deidara. He had long blonde hair (hence the nickname). Some of it was in a mini ponytail at the top of his head and bangs that covered his left eye. His eyes were so ocean blue it feels like you can jump and dive into it.

I snapped back to reality when Hidan went behind me and untied the ropes.

"Thanks..." I looked at my bloody wrist. If only I had another arm to rub my now bruised one.

"Come on, un." Deidara said and led us out the door to an enormous hallway.

"This bastard over here is Hidan. And I'm Deidara, hm." Deidara grinned and held his hand out.

"Hoshi. Arai Hoshi." I introduced myself as I reached for his hand.

For some reason when we shook hands, Hidan snickered. I looked at him oddly as if questioning "What's so funny?" when I felt something slimy licking my hand. I jumped back a little and stared, wide-eyed. Hidan burst out laughing by then and Deidara seemed a little hurt.

"That was fucking hilarious." Hidan managed to say during laughs. I glared at him and whacked him in the head. He muttered a slight "ow".

"What _was_ that?" I inquired, staring at his hand.

He turned it over so his palm was facing me. Well, not exactly palm...where his palm was, was a mouth. I stared at it curiously with interest. I reached forward to touch it, amazed at how it was possible. Deidara seemed taken back for a while but he relaxed after a few seconds.

"What do you use it for?" I asked another question.

He seemed to brighten up so much that the sun would envy him. Hidan groaned aloud, as if he wished I would've never asked the question. I tilted my head to one side, confused.

"I use it for my art! Art is a bang. Art should be fleeting, because it's beautiful that way. And-" and he went on a full lecture about art.

Damn it. Now I sympathized with Hidan, he probably had to hear this speech every single day or so. The said albino sighed and rolled his pinkish purple eyes.

He came closer to me and muttered, "Since Blondie over there is in his own lil' fuckin world, I'll give ya the damn tour."

"Thanks. I think..." I trailed off and looked over at Deidara, he was still talking about how explosions are the best thing in art.

Hidan did a pretty good job of showing me around actually. Who would've thunk? Deidara just followed us and still ranting about art. I sighed as we headed into the kitchen. There was someone already there. He had long black hair which was tied and reached down to his waist. I couldn't see his face since he was reading a newspaper and held it up to his face.

"Oi, want anything to fuckin' eat? 'Cause I'm fuckin' starvin'." Hidan asked.

"Meh...I'll have whatev' you have." I grabbed a chair and sat in front of the black haired person.

He didn't flinch or move, he didn't even seem to realize my presence. _Twitch._ Oh well, if he wants to ignore me then fine. As Hidan was preparing two bowls of ramen, we asked each other questions to keep ourselves from being bored. Our conversation was something like this.

"So how do you know Leader-sama?"

_"Who's Leader-sama? The orange-haired creeper?"_

"Heh, you might be entertaining after all."

_"What's that suppose to mean?"_

"Nothing...so how old are you?"

_"19. What's with the necklace you're wearing?"_

And so it began...the long lecture Hidan proudly spoke, just like Deidara had with art. There was the same familiar glint in his eyes when he spoke about Jashin-sama and his religion, as had Deidara and his explosions' art. This time around, I actually listened to Hidan. For one thing it sounded intriguing. A God that encourages you to wreak havoc and destruction? Count me in. I found a lot of things that Hidan and I had in common with: Swearing (although I try to control it), sadomasochism (although I'm not as masochist as him), among other things.

"So you wanna convert to Jashin?" he asked with a huge grin plastered on his face.

"Um...sorry to disappoint you Hidan but...maybe some other lifetime." I said. I wanted to convert to Jashin-sama and all but...being immortal? As much as I love eternal art (which I love more than life itself), I don't want to become eternal. I see life as Deidara sees his art, fleeting.

Hidan looked hurt and disappointed, he even pouted. I had to stifle my laughter before he sacrificed me to Jashin-sama. His pout reversed into a grin when he figured the ramen was ready. He grabbed two bowls out of the cabinet above his head and put them near the stove. Then he lifted the steaming pot and poured the ramen equally into the two bowls. He grabbed two pairs of chopsticks, broke them in two, and put them on top of the bowls and quickly placed them on the table where I was sitting.

"Wow Hidan, it smells delicious. I never took you to be the type to cook. Especially so masterfully." I joked. But it was true nonetheless, the ramen did smell good. And it tasted even better!

He took the empty seat next to me and began eating as well.

"Glad ya fuckin' like it. I am the damn master at cookin' aren't I?" he smirked arrogantly.

"Tch...whatever you say, _Master Cooker._" I mocked the title.

As we ate, an unexpected voice broke the silence.

"Who's she, Hidan?"

The black haired person placed the newspaper down and took a sip of the black coffee next to him. I took a better look at him. He had cold black eyes **(1)** to match with his hair. He also had tear troughs under his eyes that extended near his nose. To say the least, he looked kinda intimidating at first glance.

"She's Arai Hoshi. Fuckin' Leader-sama wanted to recruit her for Akatsuki. Said some shit 'bout her bein' in the ANBU when she was lil'." Hidan explained. "And that uptight asshole is Itachi Uchiha."

"I see...so I took it you failed at your mission." Itachi bluntly pointed out.

"Shut up fucker. At least I don't look like some fuckin' old man with wrinkles." Hidan insulted.

"Really? Well I could've mistaken you for one from your silver-turning-white hair." Itachi retorted.

Uh-oh...a fight's breakin' out and it's barely been an hour! Well, I guess I shouldn't have expected the notorious Akatsuki to be all friendly and goody goody. But still I could tell that this is not going well, especially if Hidan is as bloodthirsty as I thought he was. Neither of them seemed to be the type to back down from a fight, either. Where's Deidara when you need him dammit?

"Oi Itachi-san. I knew you would be here. Hey I- hey...who's this...?" a man appeared from the doorway.

To be completely honest with you, he looked like a human shark. He looked as if he had blue skin, beady eyes, and anti-gravity defying blue hair **(2)**. To complete the shark look, he had gills under his eyes. I stared at him in awe. He seemed uncomfortable under my gaze and took a step back.

"I'm Arai Hoshi. Sorry 'bout these two..._idiots._" I grinned, satisfied with my search for words and found the perfect one, imitating Leader-sama. The man laughed, but I think we're the only ones who were satisfied with my word choice, for Hidan and Itachi stopped bickering to glare at me.

"Ha ha, seems like it's gonna be fun to have you around Hoshi-chan. Pleased to meet you, Kisame Hoshigaki." he said, laughing at their glares.

"Hey look at that. We could be the Hoshi siblings. **(3)**" I grinned.

Kisame grinned too, showing me his sharp teeth. I had a feeling that it was natural. This place just keeps getting cooler [and weirder]. Before I could put much thought into it, I was about to ask Kisame-san if he knew where Deidara-san was. As if on cue, an explosion could be heard.

Everyone sighed, with the exception of Itachi. He just went back to reading the newspaper.

"Wonder what that fucktard Tobi did now." Hidan wondered aloud.

"Tobi?" my eyebrow raised.

"You'll see soon 'nough Hoshi-chan." Kisame-san said, grinning darkly.

I backed away from the grin, something about the way he said it made me anxious and unnerved. Before I could wonder about it though, I was tackled to the ground. Hard. Flat on my back.

"What the-"

"TOBI! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" Deidara roared.

"Deidara-senpai! I-I didn't mean it! S-show some m-mercy! You wouldn't harm Tobi if this pretty girl is here right?" stammered a startled voice in front of me.

So Tobi was the one who knocked me down to the ground. Again, another name added to the list. And using me as some kinda shield? Oh that boy is gonna get it...Maybe I could just hand him to Deidara. That wouldn't be much of a problem, would it?

"Tobi you damn coward!" Deidara yelled.

This only made Tobi hide behind me. Even though he moved fast, I still caught a glimpse of the man. He had an orange swirly mask that covered all of his face with one eyehole on his right. Funny, what has he got to hide? I wonder what's behind that mask...Anyway back to the subject. He had spiky black hair...and that was it. There's not much to look at except his hair behind the orange mask and his Akatsuki cloak. Every part of him was covered.

"Tobi. Come out from behind Hoshi-chan this instant!" Deidara was getting impatient **(4)**.

"But Deidara-senpai'll kill Tobi if Tobi does that!" Tobi exclaimed.

Deidara's eye visibly twitched and he stated calmly, attempting a smile [which failed miserably], "Of course Deidara-senpai won't...just come out from behind Hoshi-chan..."_Twitch twitch._

Tobi thought about this for awhile, "Umm...Okay! Tobi's a good boy! Tobi'll listen to Deidara-senpai!" and out he came. Oh what a foolish man, I almost pitied him. Almost.

Deidara was about to throw an explosive at Tobi, but decided against it seeing as how this was the kitchen. So he came up with a better solution, the next best thing. He strangled him.

"WAHHH! Deidara-senpai lied to Tobi! What has Tobi done?" Tobi cried, arms flailing as he was shoved to the ground.

"Tobi knows exactly what he did. Tobi is a BAD BOY! Tobi broke Deidara-senpai's sculpture! **(5)**" Deidara hissed.

"Sculpture?" I questioned and turned to Kisame-san for an answer.

"Ahh...Deidara loves to make clay sculpture, seeing as how they are his..."art"...his mouth-hands allow him to hastily create sculptures in great detail. Those sculptures are made with detonating clay though, so that's how he uses explosives." Kisame-san explained.

"Since that androgynous fucker is makin' such a big damn deal outta this, I'm guessin' that Tobi must've destroyed his latest one. He claimed that it was such a huge masterpiece. The only great thing about his art is after it explodes if you ask me. That way it won't be such an eyesore." Hidan remarked.

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm getting tired of all this noise...I'm gonna go to the living room." I told Hidan and Kisame-san.

They gave an approving nod and I head my way. Ever get the feeling where you're being stalked and you start to feel paranoid and you whip out a skillet outta nowhere and whack that person upside the head with a weird battle cry? Okay maybe not the skillet or the battle cry thing but you know what I mean. And that's just the way I feel right bout now. I start to look around, scanning for anything to give me a sign of the stalker, person...thingy...But after a few minutes of scanning around, nothing seemed to be out of order. So that's the first sign that I'm going paranoid! Yippie!

Maybe I am going insane...

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong>This really gets on my nerves. Almost every fanfic there's always a person who saids that Itachi has red eyes. Correction: He has BLACK EYES but his eyes turn red and black when he activates Sharingan. And seriously, why the fuck would he have it activated for no apparent reason? Unless he wants to go blind. And what kinda sane person would wanna go blind? Exactly my friends.

**(2) -**Don't you just love Kisame's awsome (yes I know there's two e's but I don't spell it like that) blue anti-gravity defyin' hair? And I'm sorry I had to refer to Kisame as "shark" a couple of times, I restrained from doing it too much 'cause it feels like I'm treating him as a freak. So sorry about that Kisame =[

**(3) -** I seriously did NOT realize that until I wrote out Kisame's surname. That is so awsome! And if you guys don't get it, my OC's name is Hoshi and the first part of Kisame's surname is Hoshi.

**(4)** - Ha, the irony...Sasori's Deidara's partner and usually Sasori is the one who's always impatient, especially with Deidara. Now it's Deidara's turn to get impatient with Tobi, Deidara's "partner". Just to clear things up, Sasori will be in this story (Since it's a SasoriOC) at the same time as Tobi. But Tobi will be Deidara's subordinate.

**(5)** - Yes I know Deidara doesn't usually talk in third person like Tobi but it was just Deidara mocking Tobi 'cause he was outraged and beyond pissed.

Okay I think I'm done with my ranting. Any guesses on Hoshi's stalker? If you guess right, your prize is...NOTHING! Isn't that awsome? **-dodges flying kunai-** Okay okay, your prize is Chapter 5. As usual, hope you guys enjoyed it!


	5. Still Meetin' the Akatsuki

Have you figured out Hoshi's stalker yet? Well if you have, that's good! Let's see if you were right. If you haven't, that's okay too. Find out in this chapter just who was her stalker.

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><p><em>"I start to look around, scanning for anything to give me a sign of the stalker, person...thingy...But after a few minutes of scanning around, nothing seemed to be out of order. So that's the first sign that I'm going paranoid! Yippie!<em>

_Maybe I am going insane..."_

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As I reached the living room, no one's in sight. "_Guess I'm by myself._" I thought to myself. I sat on the sofa and reached for the remote on the small table in front of the sofa. Flipping through the channels, none of them peaked my interest. I tried to search for some horror movies. Have you ever watched a horror movie that was so scary it nearly gave you a heart attack? Well, that was just what happened to me. Except I wish it was due to a movie.

"_Who are you?_" asked a slick voice behind me.

He was so close I could feel his warm breath on my neck. I quickly whipped my head back to where I heard the voice. No one there. You know, I should seriously call up a doctor. "Hello doctor, I have a suspicion that I might be going insane after joining the Akatsuki. Oh the symptoms you ask? I have this crazy feeling of a stalker following me and some voices behind me when there's no one actually there! You'll be here ASAP? Okay, thanks doc!" ...Okay now I'm _seriously_ going crazy. I smacked my head with my hand, sighing and shaking my head.

"**Answer the damn question, idiot.**" a dark and rough voice demanded.

My head shot to right of me, and surprisingly, there actually seems to be a person there. Well, if you could call it a person **(1)**. He had mossy green hair with yellow eyes. If you thought that was the most surprising thing, you've seen nothing yet. His whole body was like two people meshed into one. One side of him was black and the other white. Hmm...a yin-yang combo? Nice. I quite like yin-yang, it reminds me of how one side needs the other in order for there to be two. But I digress, back to the topic. The left side was black and the right was white. Hey that rhymes! Sorry, enough digressing. The oddest thing of all though was a...Venus flytrap attached to his neck? To be honest, I resisted the urge to poke it. I think he would be mad at me staring, so my azure eyes drift back to his face. Too late, he was already mad. Well, the black side was. So I decided to answer the question before he could get any more furious at me. Getting him outraged wasn't a plan that screamed, "GOOD IDEA!"

"A-Arai Hoshi. And you are...?"

"_Zetsu. It's nice to meet you._**Bullshit.**" Zetsu replied.

Was that two voices? Before I could ask, Zetsu seemed to have read my mind.

"_Forgive me for my other side. He is quite rude..._**Nonsense, the white side is just a pansy.**" Zetsu intervened with himself.

"Oh it's okay, I'm used to rude people. I mean, look at Hidan." I rolled my eyes.

Both of Zetsu's sides seemed to laugh at that. "**Maybe you're not so bad after all.**"

I grinned, "I think I'll take that as a compliment."

"_So, did Hidan and Deidara's mission fail?_" Zetsu stated disapprovingly.

"Hm, I guess. They were suppose to kidnap my friend Suzu Misaki. But Leader-sama seems to enjoy toying with my life, so I guess it wasn't really a fail since he decided to keep me." I growled at the last part.

Then I just realized something, "Ne Zetsu-san, are you the one who's been watching me in the hallways?"

"**Hn, smart girl.**_Excuse us if you thought that was rude. Yes it was us._" he answered.

"Oh, how'd you do that?" I asked, amazed that I couldn't see him at all.

"_We blended in with the walls._**It's one of our abilities.**_We also blended in with the sofa. That's how we seemed to appear out of nowhere._" he answered.

"Really? That's cool. What else can you do?" I found this fascinating, seeing as how I always wanted that ability as a little kid.

Before he could quench my curiosity though, we were interrupted. By none other than...two random old strangers I don't know...they both looked quite old though. They both had masks that covered everything but their eyes, except this other one that even covered his hair! His eyes were Christmas-colored, the iris being green with no pupil and sclera being red. He seemed to be quite tall, the tallest of all the Akatsuki is my guess. From what I could tell, he had dark tan skin, same as the other one. The other one was way shorter, he was about half the size of the first, and he had normal looking eyes. Well...as normal as frightening and bone-chilling could get. His strands of black hair stood up and gave him an intimidating and controlling aura **(2)**, if his eyes already hadn't.

"_Konbanwa_**(3)**_Sasori-san, Kakuzu-san._" Zetsu greeted the two elders.

"Konbanwa Zetsu-san." greeted the taller of the two. The shorter just grunted in acknowledgement. A silent type?

"Who's the girl?" came the raspy, rough voice of the shorter one. Maybe not?

"**Arai Hoshi. New member. Deidara and Hidan failed.**" huffed the dark side of Zetsu.

"Figures. That idiot partner can't do anything right without me." the two said in unison.

"Partners? So those two are your partners?" I questioned. This seemed odd, trading partners I mean.

"Yes. Ah yes, allow me to do the introductions. This is Kakuzu, and I am Akasuna no Sasori. Those two blundering idiots can't do anything right." he sighed, seems like the stoic members liked to use the word 'idiot' alot, "The damn fool Deidara is my partner while Hidan's Kakuzu."

"Heh, I'm willing to allow a trade. Who would want that stupid immortal bastard ranting about Jashin anyway?" Kakuzu scowled.

They got in a heated conversation about what 'fools' and 'annoying young bastards' their partners were. After hearing some information [that was excellent for blackmail] I decided it was late and that I should go sleep. I said good night to the three and left for my room. Luckily Pein gave me an official Akatsuki cloak with a few spares in my closet. On my bed was some clothes and a note. The note read:

_Dear Hoshi,_

_Tomorrow you and I will be disguised as regular town folk so we can go  
>and buy some new clothes for your wardrobe.<em>

_I gave you an old pair of pants and shirt of mine for you to wear  
>in the mean time. Hope you have a pleasant sleep so we can head out tomorrow.<em>

_-Konan_

"Well that was nice of her." I thought aloud. "Might as well take a shower now."

After the warm refreshed shower, I went straight to bed. While I laid in my bed, I looked at the bedroom. It had no windows, since we were basically in a cave. There was a desk with a lamp on it, the cabinet and wardrobe, a door leading to the bathroom, a door leading to the thousands of hallways that make up the maze they call "Akatsuki base", a nightstand with a lamp to my left and an alarm clock.

"I'll buy some stuff to make this place feel like home tomorrow." I yawned.

I turned off the lamp and just like the lamp, I was out like a light; and dreamland washed over me.

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong>Sorry Zetsu for that. But alas I had to do it for descriptive detail. (Same reason as Kisame)

**(2) -**For all of you who're confused, Sasori is INSIDE Hiruko. I always want to stay in character and Sasori doesn't come out of Hiruko much. So that's the reason for that. And the "controlling" aura was a pun -kinda- because Sasori is the master puppet master, so therefore he's in control of his puppets.

**(3)** - Good Evening means "Konbanwa" in Japanese

Hmm...wonder what Hoshi dreams about. Well, that's in the next chapter too! Have fun guessin' for the mean time.


	6. Oh Crud, I'ma Puppet?

And the dreaming begins. Just to make things clear, it's a memory (which is why it's in Italics). All will be revealed in the end, and your world will finally make sense again [unlike my mind]. Now let's quit stallin' and get inside that insane head of Hoshi. Don't worry Hoshi, I still love you -Not really.

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><p><em>"I turned off the lamp and just like the lamp, I was out like a night; and dreamland washed over me."<em>

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_The smirk was widening. I think I liked it better when he was stoic. I gulped. "So, seeing as how you owe me...how would you like to work for me as one of the Akatsuki?"_

_"And what if I refuse...?" my eyebrow raised._

_"Deidara...Hidan...step outside for a moment."_

_"Hai." both men shivered, hastily retreating outside the room for in fear of what he was going to do._

_Oh I really needa shut my big mouth sometimes don't I? Too late...Besides, what's the wrost he could do? He needs me right? That's why he offered me to join. There's no way he could kill me in any way. But with_him_...I'm not so sure..._

_"What if I say...that I can give you your arm back...? The one you so desire..." he coaxed._

_Saying I was stunned must've been the most understatement of the understatement of the understatement of all time. "W-Wha...? You...tha-...it's logically impossible!"_

_"Maybe. But I...am KAMI-SAMA! Anything is possible with me. So, what do you say...?" his smirk dripped of malice._

_"I..."_

_I was lost for words, how would he be able to do that? There was no way! There was just no way! But, what if what he saids is true? What if he_can _give me back my arm? It's worth a shot isn't it? Isn't it...? If it is then why am I hesitating? And why do I have such a horrid feeling? Maybe I should take a chance right? After all, what've I got to lose?_

_"Just your life. And your freedom. Among other things too." a voice in the back of my head said nonchalantly._

_Well, if it's a chance, even an impossible chance, I should take it. Right? Well, here goes nothing._

_"I...I accept." my voice croaked. Why was my throat dry all of a sudden? Why do I feel like I lost? Why do I feel as if I'm defying everything I live by? Why...? It's worth it if I could get back my arm right?_

_The creeper's grin grows larger each and every second, a grin that the Cheshire Cat would be jealous of. I swear, if he grins anymore, his grin will soon touch his ears and his face'll freeze like that if any longer._

_And there goes the mouse trap people. SNAP. And I was the mouse. I've got an_extremely_bad feeling. This can NOT end well. How did I get myself into this mess?_

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I awoke with a start, sweat beading down my forehead. I take deep, calm breaths. Sighing, I ruffle my hair with my left hand. I closed my eyes in deep thought. Then realization hit me like a freight train going 400 mps (miles per second). I decided against fainting.

Instead, I screamed. Bloody. Fuckin'. Murder.

The parallel universe must've heard my scream. Everyone rushed to my room, with the exception of Pein. Even a beautiful blue haired woman, who I assumed was Konan, was there, Hell, she was first. She scrambled in right of me, banging my door open as loud as thunder. The sight of me staring at my two hands like a freak must've got her to think I was crazy. Hidan and Deidara were stuck in the doorway, fighting and struggling to get free. They rushed in at the same time that they must've gotten stuck because of the other.

"What's the matter Hoshi?" Konan asked calmly, well, as calmly as you can get with a weirdo staring at her hands like they were diamonds and rubies. (No Kakuzu-san I'm not being serious.)

I jumped up and hugged her around her neck faster than the speed of lightning. Okay maybe "hugged" is the wrong term. "Death squeezed". Again I screamed, though not as loud as the first time.

"H-H-os-hii...y-y-y-you're...c-choking...m-meee...D-D-dy-iiingg..." Konan managed to squeak out as I death squeezed her to the floor while her hand was weakly raised as if trying to get my attention.

"What the fuck is going on?" Hidan eyed us weirdly.

"Yeah Hoshi, why'd you scream so loudly? You woke Tobi up." Tobi asked.

I finally let go of Konan. Poor Konan, I never felt sorrier for anyone else. Her usually neat bun was out of place with some strands of hair covered her face. The spot where I death hugged her neck was bruised purple like an eggplant and she had skin that could compare to Kisame-san. Some drool hung near her lip seeing as how her saliva failed to travel down her throat since I was preventing it (Heh...my bad?) and her eyes were wide with white and no pupils. Her index finger twitched from time to time as she was on my bedroom floor and still held it up to her neck as if she were still standing.

"Heh...my...bad..." as I stared in horror. I began apologizing frantically and profusely as I helped her up. She began fixing her self.

"It's okay, Hoshi. Why were you screaming though?" she asked.

The other members murmured in agreement and were apparently impatient about it.

I screamed, "I GOT MY LEFT ARM BACK!" as I ran to hug the closest people around me, which were unfortunately Hidan and Deidara-kun.

They reacted the same way Konan did. If not, worse. Hidan was about to scream out countless profanities but unfortunately passed out before he got the chance. Deidara the same. Everyone got a laugh at their expressions and some were questioning me on how I got my arm back.

"I...I don't know actually..." I said, dumbfounded at the thought.

"Maybe Akatsuki is just good luck for Hoshi-chan!" Tobi chirped.

I patted Tobi-kun's head, "Maybe." I grinned.

After the excitement though, everyone left since I screamed bloody murder at fuckin' 4 a.m. However, the most unexpected thing during that little "excitement" was that Sasori-san looked most pleased. He had that same gleam in his eye as did Hidan and Deidara-kun when they talked about their..."fetishes" **(1)**. I wonder why. Was there some secret? Wanting to ask him about it, I hurriedly walked towards his room. The only way I knew where to go was because of his chakra signature.

Politely, I knocked on his door. It opened to reveal none other than the man himself, Akasuna no Sasori.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked, quite irritated actually.

"Ano **(2)**...why were you so...excited when I got my left arm back?" I asked, nervous if I was agitating him.

He sighed, "Come in. I'll show you the reason..." as he opened the door wider, beckoning for me to come in.

In his room was a bed, a wardrobe, two doors leading elsewhere, and a desk scattered with blueprints and a lamp with a cup of pencils next to it. He walked towards one of the doors leading elsewhere, gesturing me to come with his tail. Wait...TAIL? It was a tail made of iron, and by the looks of it, it was extendable. Now that I paid extra extra attention to him, I could hear a **thunk** almost nonexistent. Could it be, that Sasori-san was hiding in a puppet?

"You know, I hate to be kept waiting and to make others wait..." Sasori-san growled.

Right, don't made him mad. As I followed him to the door, he opened it with his tail. If Sasori-san _was_ inside of a puppet, then he must be extremely skilled to move his puppet's tail with such ease and grace. He entered the door, and I took it as a sign to follow him. Inside, there were hundreds of puppets. They all looked so real apart from the tannish brown wood. Their eyes...they were so unfeeling, they mirrored their eternal lives. Never decaying, never dying. And can always be rebuilt if they're damaged. But, why was Sasori-san showing me this?

"Did you take a good look at your arm?" Sasori-san questioned me, jolting to a final stop in front of a table.

"N-no..." I stutter, taken back by the silence being broken.

I looked more closely at the table. There were hammers and pieces of wood, along with some screwdrivers. And sandpaper were atop of some planks.

"Hmm...go ahead. Take a good, long look at it." he suggested.

I wondered why he would mention such a thing, especially in this...workshop of some sort, probably a puppet workshop. But nonetheless I obeyed his command. I lifted up Konan's T-Shirt's sleeve, and my eyes widened. I have never been so...disappointed, ashamed, or devastated in my whole life. Now I knew what Leader-sama meant when he said that I could get back my arm. Why I had that nagging and disgusting feeling. Why Sasori-san had looked so proud. Instead of human flesh, it was wood. Connected to a wooden joint in my shoulders, which were also wood. I was wood itself. I was a puppet. A damn Jashin forsaken puppet.

"No...no...NO! NO! NO NO NO NO NO!" I tried to deny the fact, hoping if I do so, it wouldn't be true, "W-why...? I'm so stupid..." I muttered.

If I could, I was sure that I'd start forming tears and crying. But nooo, I was incapable of that because I'ma damn puppet. Gee thanks Sasori-san...

Sasori-san spoke, "Why're you sad? Being part of my ultimate art is such a great honor! In fact...I, myself am truly honored that I can be a part of my brilliant art."

Did he just say what I thought he said? Or am I going insane and deaf at the same time? Before I could ask him what he meant, the back of Sasori-san opened. So it was true, he was inside a puppet. A red-head man crawled out of the shell. In fact, he was quite handsome to say the least. He had chocolate brown eyes and long lashes that girls would die for. His crimson unkempt hair looked like perfection, like it was meant just for him. He had an Akatsuki cloak, even though he was hidden in that empty, hollow shell.

He must've noticed me staring at that _thing_ with disgust because he stated, "That's Hiruko. He's my favorite puppet actually. A puppet master's dream, to use an offensive and defensive puppet and eliminating the option of killing the puppet master itself in battle. A beauty isn't it?"

I remark blandly, "It's a shell. An empty, hollow, unfeeling shell."

Sasori-san seemed disappointed at my remark. "Isn't that part of its beauty? After all, unfeeling is the best. Human emotions get in the way of things. It's...a hindrance. Absolutely useless in every single way."

"Human emotions may be a hindrance. It may be useless. But at least it makes life worth while to live."

"Heh, silly little incompetent girl. How can emotions make life worth while to live? All you need to live is food, water, and sunlight. Also, art is a must too...And speaking of that, if you were a puppet, which you are, you could get rid of all the hindrances. It's handy in battle too. Food and water, such an errand to stop by and eat and drink during a mission. It wastes time really. Money too. Also, as a puppet you'll never get exhausted. You'll have the infinite stamina. You can fight for many millennia and never tire. Literally. And if you get damaged, you can always repair and fix yourself. You'll never die that way either. You can also never feel pain."

Seeing as how I'm a little masochist, I've taken offense to that.

"Not dying just because you're a cold, heartless puppet? That's probably the worst way to be immortal."

"Insolent girl. You're lucky that Leader-sama forbids us to kill you. Or else you'd be dead right now. **(3)** Why do you even want to be human?"

"Not feeling...it's a cruel cruel fate. You'll never be able to hold your loved ones. Or hug your friends. Or even high five them. At least, you'll never feel it. It's like your a hollow shell. A shell of nothingness. Just a husk. That cold fate. Why would anyone want that? I'm sure you've got loved ones, or you used to. Didn't you ever want them to love you and hold you in their arms? Why have you given up the privilege of that? To feel their warmth against your skin. To know they're right there, by your side no matter what. Supporting you through everything and every choice you make. Or being there, trying to stop you from making stupid decisions that you'll regret for the rest of your life. Why...?"

I took my eyes off the ground and looked at Sasori-san. My nerves went ice cold, oh wait. I don't have nerves anymore. Thanks to a certain _someone..._If looks could kill, I'd be dead in less than a millisecond. Sasori's death glare was beyond what it normally would be. The intensity was so much that I seemed to falter under it. Wide eyed, I took a step back, and some more, until I was back to his room's door that led to the hallway, with him taking his steps forward as he cornered me. I stared horrified of his glare.

"_Never_, speak of my "loved ones" like that, and that fucking bullshit about being touched and loved by them, _ever again._" he spoke through clenched teeth.

His aura was murderous, if Leader-sama hadn't laid down the rules of no one killing me, I'd be Sasori-san's rag doll for sure. He was growing more and more impatient and terrifyingly infuriated.

"Is that _clear?_" he demanded.

I slowly nodded my head, sweat covering through every part of my body.

"Now get out of my damn sight. _You make me sick._" scowled Sasori-san.

I whimpered slightly, barely audible as I nodded my head slowly once again. Oh how I hated how he made me so weak. I reached for the doorknob behind my back and found it. Slowly turning it, I opened the door and slowly backed out of Sasori's room, still mortified at the event that just occurred. Closing the door, I walked back to my room with the pace of a zombie.

As I opened the door to my bedroom, I fell onto the bed, face first with my legs dangling at the edge of the bed to the floor. Still thinking of Sasori-san's angered outburst like that, I can't seem to fall asleep. What's this scary feeling? Why am I scared of him? Why does it hurt me to see him like this? Why are all my questions always left unanswered...? Before I could ponder more, I drifted back to sleep. This time full of nightmares.

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong>I know what you're thinking, "fetishes" as in those obsessions that arouse sexual emotions. No. Just...no. For my definition, it's just an unusual obsession without anything sexual. Jashin damn...just...fuckin' Hell no.

**(2)** - Ano means "Umm" in Japanese

**(3) -**Even though Sasori said the "You can't be killed thing", it's still possible for Hoshi to die, for those who're unclear about this, because Sasori gave Hoshi the heart compartment much like his, just with a different kanji that saids "star" (because that's what Hoshi means).

Ehh...sorry I made Sasori so...un-Sasori-like with the mad thing. But it was needed I guess. If you guys are confused at the beginning, that was a missing part for the "Kidnapped" chapter at the end. If you noticed, the first paragraph for this chapter was the second to last paragraph for the "Kidnapped" chapter and the last paragraph for the dream is the same as the last sentence for the "Kidnapped" chapter. It was left out for a purpose. And this is that purpose. I thought it'd just make things clearer for this chapter. Oh yeah, sorry if there were any second person pronouns, I used to write Roleplay and I don't think I'm back to writing to first person yet. So I apologize for that. I'll try to reread over my work and make it error free. I think I'm done with my rant. Hope you guys enjoyed reading~


	7. When Will I Ever Stop Getting Kidnapped?

I think I might've made Sasori a bit too OOC the last chapter, seeing as his gigantic outburst. Ehh, so sorry about that guys if you thought he was a tad bit OOC. Just a warning, Konan might seem a bit more friendly than in the Anime/Manga I guess. But it's only because there's another girl in the gang! So deal with me. Also this chapter will have different POVs (Point of Views).Thank you, please read on~

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><p><em>"As I opened the door to my bedroom, I fell onto the bed, face first with my legs dangling at the edge of the bed to the floor. Still thinking of Sasori-san's angered outburst like that, I can't seem to fall asleep. What's this scary feeling? Why am I scared of him? Why does it hurt me to see him like this? Why are all my questions always left unanswered...? Before I could ponder more, I drifted back to sleep. This time full of nightmares."<em>

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_**Hoshi**_

Two knocks resonated through the bare room I now own. Since my face was still in the covers of the bed because I was still in the same position as when I was awake, my "Come in" got muffled. The person who knocked on my door came in, closing the door behind them.

"Wake up Hoshi..." Konan's soft melodic voice sing-songed.

"I don't feel like it..." again with the muffled-ness.

"C'mon. It's already 8 a.m. We should go shopping now, before Kakuzu changes his mind about "lending" me his money." Konan smiled.

"Meh..." I groaned.

Konan must've been serious about the "Kakuzu changing his mind about the money" thing because she was starting to get impatient about that. Konan inwardly groaned before dragging my arms up and hoisting it over her shoulders and carrying / dragging me to the bathroom.

"Come on Hoshi. It'll be fun today! Please~" she made a puppy dog face; well, attempted to.

It was more like a pout but nonetheless, it still worked. "Fine..."

The blue haired woman grinned and left the bathroom, waiting for me to get ready. A heavily sigh escaped my frowning lips. The events of 4 hours ago rewinds and replays itself in my mind. I decided to put it behind me. No use in feeling self-pity. As I turned on the faucet, I looked in the mirror. My skull eye patch was still there. If Sasori-san decided to turn my whole body into a puppet, did he manage to fix up the scars under this cloth? Only one way to find out.

I gently lifted up the patch, and sure enough, the area around it was flawless. No scars or scratches whatsoever. Maybe being a puppet wasn't so bad after all...maybe...I mean, Sasori-san is a puppet, how bad could it be? Oh Kami-sama, what am I thinking...? This goes against all my life philosophy.

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After about 10 minutes of getting ready, I headed out the door with Konan. We had to use the Transform Jetsu seeing as how we didn't need to attract any trouble. We weren't wearing our Akatsuki cloak so I had on Konan's slightly big white T-Shirt with a black cross that had small black angel wings with scribbled illegible light blue cursive that matched with black flare-jeans that were also slightly big and covered almost all my feet and Kunoichi sandals. Though I like my pants like that so it was fine. I had a black leather choker necklace on with a white diamond cross in the middle [I probably should've mentioned this before, but I had this necklace from the start but I thought I lost it when I got kidnapped]. Once again my hair was left hanging behind me.

I decided to change my hair and eye color to the alternative color they used to be. Now I had longer than shoulder length silver hair  
>and pinkish red eyes. To be honest I looked like a female Hidan. The only difference was my hair was longer (but not as long as past the top of my abdomen) and I had a more feminine touch to my facial features. Though there was still that demonic smirk filled with malice and bloodthirsty eyes.<p>

Konan changed her amber orange eyes to a lush forest green. She kept a touch of her dark blue hair but only as streaked highlights for her now black hair with bangs that sweep past her eyes. She kept her lip piercing but added a silver nose ring. Now her outfit consisted of a black tank top with grey and white abstract objects under a T-Shirt like fishnet. She rolled up her skinny jeans till they reached just below her knees. Satisfied, she led us to the nearest village. Let the shopping commence!

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"Who knew shopping could be so much fun?" I laughed.

"Well it is with me after all." winked Konan.

"True true." I mused.

We were going around all the shops in the villages and so far each of us had 20 bags full of clothes, weapons, scrolls, groceries, (you cannot BELIEVE how much the guys eat, jeez we might as well feed them off a truck load of food. But I doubt even _that_ would satisfy their bottomless pits of black holes they call their stomachs) and other knick-knacks.

We were just carelessly strolling down the path, thinking we were just about done with shopping. My eyes aimlessly wandered elsewhere while my mind was in LaLa Land. Soon my eyes caught a glimmer of some sort, sparking my interest.

"Hey Konan...can you watch over my things please?" I asked, not paying much attention.

Konan was about to refuse until she saw the dreamy expression I had on my face, knowing that I'd still dump it on her no matter what. "Oh fine..." and with that she whipped out a summoning scroll and placed all the bags into that handy compartment space.

"I'm going into this jewelry shop! Meet me here when you're done." announced Konan.

I silently drifted towards the small booth, unaware of Konan's announcement. The fortune teller noticed my presence, looking at me with those mysterious grey eyes of hers. Her tannish white hair was tied in a bun.

"What can I do you for, young lady?" came her shrilly voice, instantly reminding me of a witch.

As my right eye twitched, I calmly asked, "Can you _really_tell my fortune?"

"Of course. I'm a fortune teller am I not?"

Again with the earsplitting 'sound', again with the noticeable twitch. "And how do I know you're not spewing out lies?"

"Come closer. I'll prove it to you. I'll tell you your fortune. All you need to do is come closer and put your hand onto the crystal ball." she grinned, revealing crooked yellow teeth, some had holes drilled into them while others were missing.

Okay if my eye twitches anymore I'ma dig it out of my eye socket and throw it at this old hag. Something about her seems...disastrous. And unnerving. Albeit, I am desperate...so I guess I'll take the chance. As I stepped forward slowly, her grin grew. I hesitantly touched the crystal ball and immediately cursed myself for being so stupid. The old woman crackled like lightning.

"Dammit!" I cursed.

I tried to pull my wooden arm out of the crystal ball, but it just sank in deeper and deeper as time passed by. Soon my whole hand was in the crystal ball. Just then, I remembered what Sasori-san had said. _"And if you get damaged, you can always repair and fix yourself."_

I reached for my arm just below the forearm. I smirked my trademark smirk, glarin at the old hag at the same time. She stopped cackling and instantly horror washed onto her features. Before I could put enough force onto my arm enough to snap it in two, the petrified old hag reached out to knock behind my neck, hitting my pressure point.

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_**Fortune Teller aka Old Hag**_

I grinned and cackled again. Stupid insolent girl. There's no way that she can escape now, being unconscious and all. Just before I could drag her off though, I heard static in my ear. I put my fingers in my ear, pressing on the earpiece.

"What?" I grunted into the earpiece, not wanting to be interrupted.

"Kyouku **(1)** will be meeting you in the rendezvous soon. Hurry up with the girl." commanded a grating voice.

"Hai..." I grumbled.

I switched the ear piece off. Of course I knew what to do already. Who does he think he is bossing me around like that? No matter, as long as I get my pay I could care less. I grabbed the girl by her choker. Oops. It snapped off. Not my problem, so I grabbed her by the neck and began dragging her to the rendezvous. They won't care about her condition right?

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God damn, could they have chosen a better meeting place? Seriously, all this dust in this abandoned house is choking me. I coughed some more, my hand swatted the air around me as it tried to wave away the dust.

"Heh, looks like you finally did your job this time 'round." chuckled a familiar, yet irritating, voice.

"Shut up Kyouku...just take the damn girl and get outta my face." I snarled.

I looked up to glare at him. His blondish white hair was longer than how usual boys wear it and nearly reached his neck. He had dark green eyes that sparkled with youth**(2)**. He wore a black suit that covered his whole body with t-shirt-like sleeves, which revealed a fishnet shirt, that had an open neck. The bottom part of the suit had ended just below his knees. **(3)** Sitting on the top of the old wooden staircase rail with one leg propped up, his lips curled in a smirk.

He jumped off of the rail and landed in front of me. Our eyes met and we had a mini-glaring contest. I dumped the girl on the floor and she landed with a **thud**. He picked her up and carried her in his arms, bridal style.

He yelled, "Boss said he'll pay you later this evening." as he walked down the stairs towards the opened, creaky door.

Well, I got my job done.

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_**Konan**_

"Hmm...where could she be? She shouldn't have took that long to get her fortune, right?" I wondered to myself aloud.

As I walked out the jewelry store carrying a new extra bag, I walked towards where the fortune booth was. _**Was.**_ Where was it now? It couldn't have just grown legs and walked off on its own while carrying the owner of the booth could it? Well, the owner could've packed it up and go home but that wouldn't explain where Hoshi went. As I went closer to study the scene of the missing booth and Hoshi, I noticed a shiny glint. As I bent down to where the glint was, it surprised me that it was Hoshi's choker.

I picked it up and examined it more carefully. The leather was dirty and ragged. There were traces of heavy, large footsteps stomping on it. That means that it's been here for awhile. But just how long? And there's no way Hoshi'd leave it here. Wait, these ends, the zigzag **(4)** pattern, it looks like it's been ripped. Could it be that Hoshi had been kidnapped? Just how much does this girl get kidnapped in a month? She makes it look like a daily routine.

I scanned the area of where the booth once was and its surroundings. No other clues. I should report this to Leader-sama. This is my fault, I should've kept a better eye on Hoshi. Please be okay.

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong>It's a name I made up. The first part "kyou" means evil while "ku" means anguish. 凶苦

**(2) -**Okay I had no idea how that sounded like Gai and Lee until I wrote it. Green and youth? Yikes.

**(3) -**Think of Gaara's outfit in the Chuunin Exams except shorter and without the white sash and the strap holding the gourd. Sorry Gaara for stealing your outfit, but I'm kinda dense in Ninja Clothing 101 so yeah...

**(4) -**I don't know how to describe it. Just imagine when you snap a leather in two.

I just wanted to point something out: I. Despise. Shopping. So I skipped the details, and I'm pretty sure the details would've bored you to death (like it will to me) anyway. This chapter could've been longer but I just wanted to build up the suspense. Again, thanks for reading!


	8. Rescued? Or Not

I'm not sure how long I want this story to be. Give or take 13 or more chapters I guess. If you guys wanna review to gimme some new ideas then I'm sure I might be able to incorporate them! I'll give credit to you so don't worry about that part. I'll also give a shout out to you even if I don't use your idea, just for you to list some ideas. So please help in doing so if you want this story to be longer!

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><p><em><strong>Konan<strong>_

_"I should report this to Leader-sama. This is my fault, I should've kept a better eye on Hoshi. Please be okay."_

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"How much do you think she'll sell for?"

"Who knows, all I know is she'll make a hefty amount."

A chuckle was emitted and another one joined along. I groaned slightly as I tried to open the gates to my vision. It took a few good seconds for my sight to actually turn the blurs into clear, distinctive images. Big metal bars. Grey stoned walls and floor. Dark dimly lit place. Some other cells accompanied the one I now reside in. Metal hand cuffs jutted out the wall that held my hands together. Great. I'm in a dungeon. Am I suppose to play damsel in distress while my knight in shining armor slay the dragon to set me free? Oh that'd be nice...

"She's awake." a voice echoed.

My eyes scanned the outside of the cell, squinting as it adjust to the darkness. My gaze fell upon two men. One was an old man that was pudgy, his stomach sticking out so badly that the buttons on his white shirt was threatening to burst. On the outside he wore a brown suit, a business man perhaps. He had white hair on the back of his head, the front was bald. He had a tiny white mustache at the top of his lips though.

The other had dark green eyes with blondish almost white hair. And why does he have Gaara's outfit when he was little **(1)**? Well, obviously without the gourd. The white sash seemed to be missing too. Maybe he's like a bodyguard for the first guy?

As they came to my cell and stood in front of it, I began to ask them questions.

"Why am I here? What do you plan on doing with me?"

"Auction you of course." the business looking man answered.

"Auction? What do you take me for? Some kinda object?" I growled.

"No. I take you as something that will get me rich." he smiled slyly.

I glared, oh lookie, another bitch added to my list. If my list keeps increasing at this rate, I might have to get a new brain just to keep track.

I instantly knew what they were talking about. These bastards were planning on selling me off to some rapists or some shit like that so they can get the money. Some of the girls that get bought are either sex objects or slaves working for some spoiled rich ass **(2)**. No fuckin' way am I gonna become one of them.

"How many are in here anyway?" I could only see the one empty cell in front of mine, so I had no clue on how many ended up with a poor fate like this.

"I'm guessing around a few thousand." he stated as he waved his hand around like it was no big deal.

"What? How could you be so cruel? You heartless fuckin' asshole!" I screamed.

Okay I gotta admit. Normally I'm all up for destruction and havoc or whatnot, but this is sexism! I will _not_ tolerate sexism! And 5 thousand grand will go to the winner who can guess what that bastard did next!

A) Let me go free.  
>B) Laugh and agree with me.<br>C) Slapped me.  
>D) Beat me for the rest of the night.<br>E) C and D

If you chose E, you are absolutely right! Here's your prize: Enjoying watching me get beat up for the rest of the night! Yes, I lied about the 5 thousand grand.

"Don't you _ever_ say that again, _pet._" he spat on my face, emphasizing the word pet.

I spat in his eye, "And if I don't feel like it?" I smirked, knowing that I was getting on his nerves.

So like I said up there, he beat me for the rest of the night. Sad I didn't get to feel it though. Sasori turned me into a puppet, and this asshole wanted to see me bleed and make me "well-mannered" before the people started to choose me. Since my body was made out of wood, I didn't bleed, which made him continue for the whole night. After the sun came up though, he got tired and doze off so I kicked him in the corner. Heavy sleeper.

The blond whitey left though. He got bored after the first hour. I sighed, what to do and how to escape? I wonder, if I pull on my arms hard enough, will they come off? After a few minutes of experimenting, the result was no. Why did Sasori-san make me so durable? I mean, since when did wood become steel? I decided to kick my way out. I front flipped and twisted my body around, that way I now faced the wall. I kicked it with all my might. And guess what happened? Turns out that I'm at the edge of this "dungeon" and that it's piled with layers of durable bricked walls. No good luck at all. Why have you forsaken me Kami-sama?

I guess I'll just-

_**BOOM!**_

Am I going paranoid?

_**BOOM!**_

Okay maybe not. It sounds familiar, and the earth shakin' feels familiar too. That noise is probably Deidara's bombs. Nothin' new. Wait...PLAY THAT BACK. DEIDARA? And BOMBS? I grinned, "Yes! They're breaking me out!" I thought to myself. On cue, Sasori-san, who was in Hiruko once again, smashed the wall I had just been laying against with his tail. I had never been more happier to see him in my life! But _he_ doesn't seem so excited about it...He actually seems to be glaring. Uh-oh...he still isn't over it...I slumped back.

As if trying to put me on my guard, he smashed my hand cuffs, narrowly missing my _head_ by 1 cm. Jeez I know that you're pissed but don't take it out on me for fuck's sake! Even though I'm the one who got you mad in the first place...okay never mind...

"Come on, brat. What're you waiting for? Christmas?" he snarled.

"No I'm waiting for you to calm your fuckin' steamin' ass down." I scoffed to myself.

He began to run to somewhere, probably to Deidara, so I followed him. As we reached a clearing, I was dumbfounded. Where was Deidara? Seems like I spoke too soon, Deidara was riding on a...bird? It looked like it was made of clay, and detailed too. But Kisame said Deidara made clay sculptures with his hands. How would his hand-mouths be able to chew out that thing? And how was it moving as if it were living?

"Hope on Hoshi!" smiled Deidara.

Guess I'll ask him later. So I hopped on the bird. Then Deidara flew the bird towards the Akatsuki base.

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"So how did you make that bird?" I inquired.

Deidara went into a long speech, talking about how his techniques worked. We were in the Akatsuki base now, the kitchen more specifically. As our conversation dragged on longer, some time later Konan burst in the room.

"Hoshi! I heard you were back!" she hugged me.

I grinned, "Missed me?"

She smiled, then it was replaced by a frown a second later, "I'm sorry you got kidnapped. It's all my fault. I should've kept a closer eye on you."

"Don't give yourself so much credit." My trademark smirk spread across my face.

This time Konan's smile stayed, "Oh yeah, Leader-sama needs to see you."

"What for?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"I'm not sure. It might be a mission." and she began to lead me through the maze of the Akatsuki base to reach Leader-sama.

When we reached the door, Konan turned the doorknob and led us inside. It was almost as dark as I remembered. Except this time there was more light for me to actually see a person already in front of Leader-sama's desk. Sasori-san. Oh great...

"Ah good, you're here Hoshi. Sasori, Hoshi, you two are to complete a mission. It will be just the two of you, making it a two man squad."

I grimaced. For a second I thought I saw Sasori-san glare, but when I checked to make sure, he was wearing his usual bored expression.

"The details of the mission are in this scroll," he tossed the bundled scroll to Sasori-san, "you will leave by tomorrow noon. Do not fail me."

"Hai." we both said in unison and left the room.

I thought about the awkwardness of going on the mission with Sasori-san if our relationship was this shattered, so I tried to apologize.

"Ne, Sasori-san, listen...I'm sorry about wh-"

He lashed out at me, "I don't need your stupid pathetic apologies. Try not to make yourself a bother during the mission." he glared at me for the last part, then shoved passed me to make his point more clear.

Maybe I was safer when I was kidnapped **(3)**.

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong>In this situation, I thought about making it easier than to just restate what Kyouku looked like again, so Hoshi has seen Gaara before, during the Chuunin Exams.

**(2) -**I'm not sure if this happens in the U.S., but it happens in China and I think it might happen in Japan too. Not sure, but that's where I got the idea. If you watch Chinese dramas or One Piece (Keimi/Camie the mermaid), you'll know what I'm talking about.

**(3) -**For those of you who don't get the title, this is why. The "Or Not..." part is talking about how Hoshi feels like the part when she was kidnapped was safer than hanging with Sasori, so the "Rescued? Or Not..." part is like saying she was rescued, meaning she should be safe away from danger, here's where the "Or Not" part comes in: when Sasori was assigned the same mission as Hoshi, seeing as how Sasori seems to want to rip Hoshi's head off on the spot.

I'd really appreciate it if people write reviews to tell me some ideas I could use for this story. I feel like my plot isn't really good or satisfying for you guys. And I'd like to have you guys participate in the story if you like it because you're the reason why I'm writing it in the first place. I know I don't beg for reviews and that it's a very annoying thing (which is why I refrain from doing it) but I seriously think your ideas will be better than mine. So if you'll spend some time to come up with an appropriate end (and maybe some new twists to the plot) than I'd appreciate it a lot. As always, thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed it~


	9. Officially an S Rank Criminal

I'd just like to say thank you to all the people who read this story and add it to their favorites or Alert list. I'll name the following people at the end. Also thanks to glitterthorn for giving me the first review and some ideas! So thank her that the story is extending. But if you wanna gimme some more ideas, that'd be cool too. So onward to the story!

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><p><em>"He lashed out at me, "I don't need your stupid pathetic apologies. Try not to make yourself a bother during the mission." he glared at me for the last part, then shoved passed me to make his point more clear.<em>

_Maybe I was safer when I was kidnapped."_

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Leader-sama said that he'd give us till noon by today to leave and start on our mission. Seeing how Sasori-san is so impatient, I decided for us to leave at 6 a.m. Sasori-san happily agreed to this, well, as happily as he can be...So I headed to my room to pack up some necessities for a mission. I didn't need to shower, eat, or drink; so I just packed some weapons: kunai, shuriken, poisonous senbon, and some of my favorites: windmill shuriken, and Vigoorian Flail **(1)**.

I decided to tie my hair up in a ponytail, can't have it hanging in my face during a battle. That's a major no-no. I wore a loose black blouse-like shirt that had a v-neck. Underneath was a fishnet shirt that covered up the space left from the blouse shirt. Then for pants I wore tight black cropped pants that was just below my knee. As usual I just wore the kunoichi sandals. My hands were bandaged with elastic bandages all the way to near my elbow.

I think I'm ready now, and perfect timing too!

"C'mon Hoshi. I'm tired of waiting." Sasori-san grumbled.

"Hai hai..." I rolled my eyes.

As I ran towards the doorway to where Sasori was, he was standing there in Hiruko yet again, reading the scroll. I stood impatiently beside him, waiting for him to finish the scroll. Did I ever mention that I'm impatient too? Though I don't lash out at people like a certain puppet master. As if he read my mind, he finished the scroll and began walking to where the mission was assigned.

"Looks like we have to retrieve some secret scrolls. From your old village too, ain't this a coincidence? It's hidden in some sacred cave of some sort where only ANBUs have access. You should remember." he said.

Indeed I did remember, though the memory was faint. Nonetheless it will do. And knowing my village, they'd have probably rebuilt the whole village by now. My village had quite the handy construction workers. Hmm...a pity to destroy it again if they cause us any more trouble than necessary.

The walk there though was complete awkward silence with Sasori-san. I wonder what I could say to clear up that "incident". Though he'd probably lash out at me and cut off my head and give my body to Hidan for sacrificing. Yeesh, not a good picture. Why was Sasori-san so sensitive about that subject anyway? Could it be that he lost his precious loved ones? Maybe a girlfriend. Nah, Sasori-san doesn't seem like the type to have one. Then why does the thought bother me and nag me?

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"We're here," Sasori-san announced, "And they've already rebuilt the village. I'll give 'em credit for that."

We were in a clearing, a meadow just outside of my village hidden by some evergreen trees in the far distance. The cave was somewhere in the mountains, where my "accident" had happened. Perhaps...that's why Leader-sama had showed up. To retrieve the scroll he now wanted us to get.

"Remove your cloak," Sasori demanded, "The cave must be heavily guarded if the scroll is that important. You could transform into Misaki Suzu. Then you can grab the scrolls and do a Teleportation Jutsu. If they find the scrolls missing, it'll all be blamed on Misaki Suzu and that'll be her downfall."

I felt kinda sorry for Misaki. She was the only one who was nice to me. Though it _was_ pity. It might even be fun to see Lil' Miss Perfect being hated and exiled and isolated from society. Maybe then will she learn my pain through all these years. I guess I should do what Sasori-san saids before he gets angered again. So I unbuttoned my cloak, took off my straw hat, and handed them to him. He wrapped his tail around them and backed away.

I made a hand sign and transformed into Misaki Suzu. With my emerald green eyes, I examined my body as I turned around. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Even after years of going without ninjutsu and genjutsu, I'm still good. I grinned and headed towards way to the cave. I could hear the slight **thunk** against Hiruko while Hiruko was moving, sliding and smashing some rocks in the process as he followed me.

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Soon the cave came into view. It was like the entrance to those Egyptian pyramids. It had a gateway of some sort made of sand. There were pillars on the side to hold up the column on top. The cave must've been here for thousands of years, these pillars and column looked Greek if I'm not mistaken. There were two guards at opposite sides of the entrance though. The right side yawned, it'll be easy to take those two out. Sasori-san slipped behind some rocks, hiding from view. I sauntered up to those two guards, stopping right in front of them.

"Hey boys, mind if I take a look inside?" I asked with a grin.

"O-oh! Of course Misaki-san!" they stuttered.

I leisurely walked past the two guards. What blundering fools. Inside the cave was different though. And it was immensely humongous. There was a hole above the cave, not gigantic but enough for me to fit. Perfect, an escape route! The cave was unusually bright due to this, since the sunlight was shining beams of light into the cave. The brightest of sunlight was...hitting a bright ray on the marble podium that held the scrolls in a glass containment! I walked over to the scroll, smiling at how easy this was. Before I could reach my destination however, a group of ninja jumped out from the hole. An ambush or trap maybe? No matter, this'll be fun _and_ easy.

The ninja turned out to be mostly ANBU, some chuunin mixed in the group. They looked startled when they saw me, most likely from my form. I smiled and waved at them. Obviously they didn't like this, for they backed up and yelled, "Imposter!".

"Well that was rude," I remarked, sardonic in sounding hurt, "I take it you guys don't like my form?"

Since they've already figured out I was a fake, I decided to ditch this annoying form. As I released my Jutsu, they looked even more shocked. Their faces looked priceless, I should do this more often. Though there was one that had his entire face and body covered. Sad, I couldn't see his reaction. The others made up for it though.

"Wh- Ho- How'd you g-get back your arm?" a voice stuttered from the group.

I smirked, "Magic." and whipped out my poison senbon, throwing them with precise aim at a few members in the back.

"You bastard!" the leader yelled out, voice muffled from the mask he wore.

A few others lunged at me. I twirled out my shuriken and once again, hitting my targets. I stood in a Kamae position, then moved to a Shuto uke **(2)**with a "Come on" gesture. This provoked them, which was what I was aiming for. They charged forward. 5 against 1. Bad odds. _For them._ As one charged and did a karate kick in midair, before he could land a hit on me I grabbed his ankle, turned around with great force, and slammed him into the rock hard wall. With my back turned, another hoped to catch me off guard and punch me. I grabbed her wrist with both hands without turning back. Then I pulled her forward with strong might, slamming her onto the wall and then the boy whose skull I cracked. 2 down, 3 to go.

They didn't put up much more of a fight. One charged at me with her sais, one in each hand. I whipped out a kunai and when she got close enough, shoved my kunai in both sides of her sai, turned it, and swung it upwards, leaving her with one other sai, which I kicked out of her hand momentarily. I took the advantage that she was stunned and kicked her ankle, knocking her down. I grabbed both her ankles and swung with all my might. When the other two stopped, I took the chance and let her go. She went flying faster than a hummingbird's wings. After I heard the satisfying _**BANG**_ that indicated her crashing the other two against the wall on the opposite side of the cave, I turned to their supposed leader.

"I'm ashamed to say that I was once a part of this weak village." I spat.

"You...despicable MONSTER!" he roared.

"Why don't you prove me wrong? Then I'll take back what I said." I stared idly at my kunai, which I was trying to balance the sharp point on my index finger as I leaned back on the wall.

He growled at me toying with him. He lunged at me. I smirked and threw my kunai in the air, catching it on its handle and charged at him. Our weapons met, my kunai with his Dragon sword. Finally, someone who could last at least 10 seconds. Maybe this match'll even be fun. We both jumped back, anticipating for the other to strike. Now, since I'm a lil' rusty with chakra, I think the best choice for me is just to use Taijutsu and my beloved weapons. He seemed to be nervous though, I could see his slight trembling and shaking. My smirk grew, fear is your best weapon!

I sprang forward, kunai in hand, aiming for his neck. Sadly he knew what I was aiming for and jumped away, putting some distance between us. Again I tried, again he jumped back. A coward now, eh? Well if he's just going to run, I don't have all day. This guy's wearing my patience. And here I was, hoping to look for some fun. I threw my kunai at him. If he's _that_ debilitated, then he'd get stabbed in the neck. Turns out he isn't that weak after all. He deflected my kunai with his sword, but he failed to see.

My smirk was dripping of malice, my face inches away from his. Before I could swing one of my mini-scythe through his neck, he missed his death by 1 cm. The kunai I threw was just a diversion so I could get up close to slice his poor little head off. He must've gotten the wake up call that screamed "You're going to get your neck sliced off if you just keep running away!" since he did some hand seals. **Ox. Horse. Ram.**"Water Release: Ice Darts Technique!" Sharp darts made of ice emerged from his mouth and were aiming at me.

I hurriedly deflected them with my Vigoorian Flail, one of the mini-scythe like blades in my hand as a handle and the other dangling on a chain off my hand. The darts all headed towards the left of me, planting themselves in the ground instead. The darts tore the mouth part of the mask he was wearing. He growled. I spun the chain on my hand, when I was satisfied with the speed and power, I hurled it at the man with full force. The blade shot forward faster than any bullet can. The man did a teleportation jutsu towards my left. I yanked the chain, directing it towards to man. He jumped up, fingers barely on the edge of the hole. Didn't he ever learn? I pulled the chain upwards, and it followed my orders. He let go of the edge, then jumped on the side of the wall to my right.

I death glared at him, if only looks could kill. He made hand signs yet again. **Boar. Dog. Horse. Tiger.**"Water Release: Water Drowning Technique!" and instantly a large spiraling stream of water shot towards me. My eyes widened and I immediately jumped towards the wall. Before I could get out of the water though, I heard him yell the dreaded words. "Lightning Release: Lightning Cutter!" A small short scream escapes from my throat as I slowly get electrocuted. Jashin damn that asshole! All the water disappeared and I fell down to the ground. A stream of smoke emits from my mouth. Pain. That's what coursed through my veins and body this instant. I laid there on the now wet ground.

As the guy came closer to examine if I'm really dead, he drew a kunai from his weapon pouch. He slowly walked, careful if I would ambush him. A smirk from my now bleeding lips formed. He tried to run away, too late. I stood up and threw one half of my Vigoorian Flail around him, wrapping him in my chain. My sadistic smirk grew and grew.

"Any last words?" I asked, not really caring either way.

He took at least 5 seconds struggling, I took that as a no. So right then and there, I chopped off his head. Blood spewed everywhere. It stained my clothes, weapon, face, his clothes, the ground. It was everywhere. It was beautiful. A real piece of art. Nature's masterpiece. Nothing could be more soothing than this. I licked the dripping blood off my blades, savoring every moment. As I looked back at the chopped off head, I paused for a minute, then walked over there. As I completely unraveled the mask, it kind of shocked me to see such a familiar face.

The unfeeling, dead green eyes stared back at me. The blonde hair was soaked with blood. Misaki Suzu. My cold, angry eyes stared at her lifeless ones. Shame to see her die in a place like this. A more shame that she put up such a poor fight. And here I was, thinking that _she_ was more powerful and greater than me. Such a disappointment actually. Oh well, she's no use to me. She never was. I threw her head in the air, and when it came down, I kicked it. It bounced off the walls and rolled towards the rest of her dead companions.

Sasori-san must've been getting extremely impatient, so I headed towards the scrolls. The glass case shimmered in the sunlight. Shoving it aside, and hearing the **crack** as it fell to its demise and shattered into a million pieces, I grabbed the scrolls and headed back towards Sasori-san, killing the guards in the process.

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"Hokage-sama, we've searched through their memories, it seems that Arai Hoshi is responsible for their deaths and the missing scrolls." a Chuunin reported.

"Report this to every village. From here on out, Arai Hoshi is officially a Missing Nin, an S-Rank criminal. If anyone sees her, they are permitted to kill her on the spot." Tsunade's furious voice rang as she slammed her palms on the desk in fury.

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong> Message me if you want to see the type of weapons Hoshi brought, the link isn't cooperating with this site.

**(2) -**Same thing as above if you want to see what positions I was talking about.

Thanks to Vampire-cutie18, CuttingLightning, glitterthorn, and waterworks12 for adding this story to their Story Alerts! Thanks to animatedgemini and waterworks12 for adding this story to their Favorites! And special thanks for glitterthorn for giving me this idea to write this chapter. And thank you for reading this story! Please give me more ideas if you want me to incorporate them. Bye for now.


	10. A Talk

Once again I'd like to thank glitterthorn for her brilliant idea! And what is that brilliant idea you may ask? I have no idea...Okay okay, you'll find out soon enough once you read the chapter. So let's get this party started! Hmm, just realized that was a lyric from Puppet ~ Thousand Foot Krutch **(1)**. Often the song used for Sasori since he is well, a puppet. But I digress, sorry! This one's going to be in different POVs.

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><p><em>"Report this to every village. From here on out, Arai Hoshi is officially a Missing Nin, an S-Rank criminal. If anyone sees her, they are permitted to kill her on the spot." Tsunade's furious voice rang as she slammed her palms on the desk in fury."<em>

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_**Hoshi**_

"We've managed to secure the scrolls that you so desired, Leader-sama." I reported to Leader-sama as I placed the scrolls in front of him on his desk.

"Good. Excellent job on your first mission Hoshi. Now, is there anything else?" he asked.

"I ran into trouble when I tried to steal the scrolls. Some ANBU and a few Chuunin ambushed us and the leader was none other than Misaki Suzu. I've taken care of them so there's no need to worry about them."

"I see. By the way Hoshi. It seems that after your mission, you've been announced an official S-Rank criminal. You are now an official honorary member of the Akatsuki **(2)**. I commend you on your hard work." he announced, putting his hands in front of him.

I gasped, "T-thank you sir." and shook hands with Leader-sama.

We heard a slight banging from the door. Leader-sama raised an eyebrow. I shrugged, having an idea of what was going on outside.

"You may come in if you wish..." Leader-sama said, still looking at the door.

With that, the door flew open. And who else was on the other side you ask? The rest of the Akatsuki, with Deidara, Hidan, and Tobi sprawled out on the floor. A chuckle escaped my throat. Leader-sama looked at them oddly before shaking his head and sighing. I simply smiled at him.

"Now...if you'll excuse me...can you all please _leave_?" Leader-sama demanded, more than asked.

We all scrambled out of his office hurriedly, afraid he'll have our heads if we don't listen. Knowing Leader-sama, he wouldn't hesitate a bit. Before I could leave, I noticed a presence behind me. When I turned around, my eyes were welcomed to dark blue hair and amber eyes.

I smiled, "Konan!"

"Congratulations on your mission Hoshi." she smiled warmly at me.

"Thank you." and we both returned to where the others were walking.

After awhile, they headed to the kitchen so we followed in pursuit. Feeling hungry, I rummaged through the cabinets in search of a snack while the others seated themselves on the chairs of the dining table. Finding some oranges, I peeled and placed them on a plate.

"Hey, you know, now that Hoshi is officially an Akatsuki, why not have a party, un?" suggested Deidara as I set the plate down.

"YAY! A PARTY! LET'S HAVE ONE SENPAI! PLEASE! TOBI LOVES PARTIES!" Tobi shouted, clearly deafening everyone in the room.

"Yeah, a fuckin' party. That's what we need. It's been so damn boring these days. Finally some excitement!" Hidan agreed, nibbling on an orange slice.

I smiled as everyone agreed and made preparations. I didn't realize that I wasn't in the mood for one until Konan handed me an orange slice.

"Cheer up Hoshi! This party is going to be just for you. At least look alive."

"Look...alive?" I muttered repeatedly.

Konan cocked her head sideways, puzzled by my bemusement. I stood up and pushed my chair in, leaving the rambling criminals in their own lil' world. Konan looked concerned, but she knew that I needed to be by myself. No one even noticed that I had left.

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_**Deidara**_

I chatted with the guys for about 5 minutes, suggesting and pointing out things here and there. Boy is this gonna be a fun party! I grinned, turning to ask Hoshi a few things. But when I went to turn to face her, the only thing that might my gaze was a chair. The chair that Hoshi was sitting on. Where could she have gone? And why did she leave? Troubled, I looked at Konan and told her that I was going to look for Hoshi.

I made my way to the living room, nada. Pein's office? Zilch. Her bedroom maybe? Just about 20 shopping bags. Bathroom? Nada. Under this rock? Nope. Zetsu's stomach? Just a few bloody bones and undigested hearts and hands. But no Hoshi. Where could that girl be? I decided to look outside. That was the only place I haven't looked in. After I aimlessly wandered around, I saw the beautiful forest. It was pretty in the day I guess. But at night? I can't even describe how beautiful it looked. Oh hey I just did! Okay okay, back to business. That looked like a pretty good place for her to go to. Besides, she wasn't anywhere else.

I took a step towards the forest, followed by another step, and another, and ano- okay you get the point. As I made my way through the trees that seemed to blossom with life, a clearing greeted me. Of course, this was high ground, so the edge of the clearing was a cliff. I mean, who would ever be stupid enough to sit on the edge of that right? Unless they wanted to die or something. But _surely_ someone couldn't be THAT stupid! Especially not Ho- HOSHI? WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE DOING THERE?

I rubbed my eyes, sure enough it was Hoshi. Lying on her back with her hands behind her head. Right there. Near the cliff. Near the edge. Near her death. Jeez, I had a feeling this girl was crazy and weird but not this weird and suicidal. I walked towards her, she responded by staring at the sky. What's she staring at? I walked beside her, lying down on my back just like her, hands on my stomach.

As I look up, I could see why she was so absorbed into the sky. It was absolutely mesmerizing. With the bright gleaming stars scattered all over, fireflies flying around, the trees at the corner of my eyes in full bloom with flowers in every color imaginable. The best of all, a pearl white moon shining just overhead as if watching over and protecting us in its resonating light. And the stars seemed to dance with the fireflies.

I looked over at Hoshi. She seemed to be captivated by the beauty and peaceful harmony. I think I like her like this, rather than her side of a female Hidan. Or that horrible time of a female Tobi. _Shudder._ In a way, she kind of reminds me of Sasori-no-danna. Her eyes shone as bright as the wild laughing stars, true to her name, though they were calm and serene. Her mouth agape, and her cheeks rosy red. I don't think she noticed that I was here, so I decided to speak first.

"Hoshi? What're you doing out here? Why aren't you inside planning with the others, hm?"

She didn't seem to be aware of me, even when I spoke. I was about to repeat myself until she spoke.

"I don't feel like it." was her answer.

"Wha? Why, un?" I asked.

For a minute, her azure eyes turned darker, and sadder. She broke her majestic gaze with the sky and looked down. I wonder what was bothering her this much.

"Because..."

She seemed hesitant, as if she was pondering over the thought if she could trust me enough to tell. After a while, she must've decided to trust me. Probably just to get it off her chest.

"I...I don't like to party when I'm sad."

Before I could ask her why she was sad, she intervened, "Ne, Deidara, do you want to be immortal? To live life for all eternity?"

I was surprised that she'd bring up something like that, "No. Just like my art, I'd wish to live life, but not for forever. I'd like to go out with a _bang_, un!" I smiled.

"Oh." was all she said.

"Why would you ask that, hm?"

"...B-because...Leader-sama, I made a deal with him. On that day that you kidnapped me. When you and Hidan were asked to step out, Leader-sama offered a deal. I was foolish to accept it. He offered me my left arm, that is, if I join the Akatsuki."

"Oh. So that's how you got back your arm, un." I stated, still not getting what immortality has to do with this.

"Yes...and I regret it." she gritted her teeth, "Turns out Leader-sama ordered Sasori-san to make me a human puppet."

I gasped a little, I was shocked, but then again I wasn't. Leader-sama would do something like that, just to get what he wanted. And Sasori-no-danna wouldn't really care. He probably enjoyed it, claiming that it was part of his "beautiful art". I respect Danna for his art, but turning Hoshi into a human puppet? Without her consent? And for her to endure something like that for the rest of her life? Which is forever? That was low. Even for him.

I tried to cheer her up, "At least you get all eternity? Most humans would kill to be immortal, hm. You're-"

She growled, which could compare to a dog's, "I don't _want_ eternity."

I grimaced, I shouldn't have brought that up.

"I _want_ a normal human life. I _want_ to die. I _want_to eat. I _want_ to drink. I _want_to feel. I _want_ to sleep. I _want_to be harmed. I _want_ to be 'burdened by all these human hindrances'' as Sasori-san puts it. Being in this...shell of hollowness and nothingness is agony. It's torture. When I licked the blood off of my Vigoorian Flail, I tasted nothing. Nothing. I couldn't even feel the wetness of the blood. 'Look alive' saids Konan. How the fuck can I 'look alive' when I'm stuck in this dreaded body?"

I winced, Hoshi was getting infuriated. I sympathized her. And I kind of hate Sasori-no-danna and Leader-sama at the moment, why did they have to do that to her? To put her in that cruel fate? Hoshi was different. She was different from everyone I met. And I like it, she's the first person that's different. But in a good sense. She didn't deserve this. To suffer as she did now.

"It's cold. Yet, it's not. I feel cold inside, but not outside. I feel as if...I'm trapped. In a cage. Like a bird. Wanting to get free. Do you know what it's like? You can't even hug your loved ones, or even just high five a friend. You can't feel. You can't even eat, eat any food you'd like, or drink anything you like. To have your taste buds dance on your tongue from the magnificent smell. Or your nose picking up any heavenly aroma. You can't even sleep, or dream for fuck's sake. A dream is where you've left reality for a better place. Inside your mind. Inside your world of desires, hope, or fears, or anything. All that's taken from me. All because of this dreaded, cursed body. Sasori-san saids that emotions are a hindrance. I...I agree, but...what's life without emotion? It's like you're a robot. Just a tool. That can be easily tossed aside and abandoned. Sasori-san said that if I ever get damaged, I can always be fixed. That's a lie. If I could be repaired as much as I need to, why is this still left broken?" she clutched her heart, "If I could be fixed, then why shouldn't Sasori-san fix this for me? Take its pain away. It hurts so bad..." she whispered.

"Hoshi..." I mumbled.

"Fuck, I can't even cry for fuck's sake. I know that most people would find that weak. But crying doesn't indicate that you're weak, since birth, it's been a sign that you're still alive. If I can't cry right now, how can I even be alive? After all, the soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears." she went on.

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_**Sasori**_

I had excused myself from Hoshi when we arrived back to the Akatsuki base. There our paths separated, and she went to report to Leader-sama about our mission. After she left, I got out of Hiruko, placing him in a summoning scroll. I had walked into the forest, looking for some peace and quiet. And peace and quiet is what I got, that is...until after half an hour later. Hoshi had walked into the forest, with concern and dismay stained her features, so I decided to follow her and see what was wrong.

After I followed her, she laid down on the ground, looking at the stars in the sky. I stayed hidden in the trees and bushes. I was about to go out there to ask her what was wrong, after all, I was probably the reason why she was so down since I had lashed out at her a couple of times, even when she was apologizing. Before I could though, another figure appeared. Blond hair and blue eyes, Deidara? What was he doing here?

I think I'm going to stay hidden, maybe she'll tell him why she's so depressed. That way I don't need to make myself known. Their conversation went like this:

"Hoshi? What're you doing out here? Why aren't you inside planning with the others, hm?"

_"I don't feel like it."_

"Wha? Why, un?"

_"Because...I...I don't like to party when I'm sad."_Pause. _"Ne, Deidara, do you want to be immortal? To live life for all eternity?"_ I knew it. The cause of depression is me, isn't it? _Sigh._ Girls were so complicated.

"No. Just like my art, I'd wish to live life, but not for forever. I'd like to go out with a _bang_, un!" Insolent brat. He knows nothing, of _true_ art.

_"Oh."_

"Why would you ask that, hm?"

_"...B-because...Leader-sama, I made a deal with him. On that day that you kidnapped me. When you and Hidan were asked to step out, Leader-sama offered a deal. I was foolish to accept it. He offered me my left arm, that is, if I join the Akatsuki."_She was actually telling him? Who knew that someone could trust Deidara of all people.

"Oh. So that's how you got back your arm, un."

_"Yes...and I regret it."_

"At least you get all eternity? Most humans would kill to be immortal, hm. You're-"

_"I don't_want_eternity."_What? Who in their right mind would refuse eternity? To be immortal? To suppress those limitations of being human?

_"I_want_a normal human life. I_want_to die. I_want _to eat. I_ want_to drink. I_want _to feel. I_want_to sleep. I_want _to be harmed. I_want_to be 'burdened by all these human hindrances'' as Sasori-san puts it. Being in this...shell of hollowness and nothingness is agony. It's torture. When I licked the blood off of my Vigoorian Flail, I tasted nothing. Nothing. I couldn't even feel the wetness of the blood. 'Look alive' saids Konan. How the fuck can I 'look alive' when I'm stuck in this dreaded body?"_She paused, then continued on.

_"It's cold. Yet, it's not. I feel cold inside, but not outside. I feel as if...I'm trapped. In a cage. Like a bird. Wanting to get free. Do you know what it's like? You can't even hug your loved ones, or even just high five a friend. You can't feel. You can't even eat, eat any food you'd like, or drink anything you like. To have your taste buds dance on your tongue from the magnificent smell. Or your nose picking up any heavenly aroma. You can't even sleep, or dream for fuck's sake. A dream is where you've left reality for a better place. Inside your mind. Inside your world of desires, hope, or fears, or anything. All that's taken from me. All because of this dreaded, cursed body. Sasori-san saids that emotions are a hindrance. I...I agree, but...what's life without emotion? It's like you're a robot. Just a tool. That can be easily tossed aside and abandoned. Sasori-san said that if I ever get damaged, I can always be fixed. That's a lie. If I could be repaired as much as I need to, why is this still left broken?"_she clutched her heart,_"If I could be fixed, then why shouldn't Sasori-san fix this for me? Take its pain away. It hurts so bad..."_she whispered.

Hmm...I can't deny that she's not telling the truth. I missed those things when I first turned myself into a puppet. But she'll learn to adapt.

But...I'll admit, she's...different. Different from all the girls I've meant, different from everyone I met actually. To want to die? To want to feel harm? Indeed, she's extremely different. But unique. I'll give her that. All the girls I've met were...obnoxious, and rude, and knew nothing of art. But her...

"Hoshi..."

_"Fuck, I can't even cry for fuck's sake. I know that most people would find that weak. But crying doesn't indicate that you're weak, since birth, it's been a sign that you're still alive. If I can't cry right now, how can I even be alive? After all, the soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears."_

What is this feeling? This feeling that's buzzing in my stomach. And why does my heart hurt? Am...am I feeling...guilt? _Twitch._ What is this girl doing to me?

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><p><strong>(1)<strong> - /watch?v=tHAn5mYtn3M Lyrics to Puppet ~ Thousand Foot Krutch if you guys wanna listen to it. It's a good song so give it a chance. The first part of the link is "youtube" but for some reason this site won't lemme enter its name.

**(2)** - If you guys are confused about her being an "official" Akatsuki, it's because she was just a minor addition from the beginning, something like Tobi, except lower than that? But she was given a chance to show her skills so that's why Pein gave her a mission.

The part with Sasori's POV is just traced back to where Deidara starts talking to Hoshi. It's the same conversation, just with Sasori's thoughts. I'm sorry if Sasori seems a bit OOC, but this _is_ a SasoriOC, so I thought I might speed things up a bit with his feelings. So sorry about that!

Also, thank you for joining the wagon windwolf1988 for adding this story to your Story Alerts! Till next time.


	11. Party!

Hmm…this is gonna be a fun chapter! Kinda. Well. Not really. This chapter will be featuring the party so not much is gonna happen. Hope you enjoy reading it though, since I'm basically not good at parties...So I decided to have fun and write a crack fic! Kinda...since I'm trying to keep the Akatsuki members in character. But then again, it should be fun for them to be OOC. My excuse: They're drunk. All 'cept you and dear Sasori. And since I've kind of been OOC with Sasori for the all the past chapters, this one he'll be more in character, well...I'll try.

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><p><em>"What is this feeling? This feeling that's buzzing in my stomach. And why does my heart hurt? Am...am I feeling...guilt?<em> Twitch. _What is this girl doing to me?"_

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When I was done with my rant to Deidara, we headed back to the base to see how the party was going. Almost everyone was in the living room where the party was supposed to be held. Apparently, even Sasori-san showed up. He looked a little distant though. Who knew he'd be the type to daydream? I was about to try and apologize again but didn't get my chance. I was tackled down to the ground by a certain man with an orange swirly mask.

"Hoshi-chan! You're back, and just in time for the party too!" he hugged me.

I pushed him off, hugs were something I did not enjoy. Tobi whined at that.

"So where's Hidan and Kakuzu-san?" I questioned the hyperactive man.

"Oh, they're getting some sake!" Tobi said cheerfully.

The Akatsuki? Drunk? Oh this has got to be a sight to see...This was probably going to be the most entertaining night of my life! I chuckled darkly. Tobi must've heard, he got scared and backed away.

"Hoshi-chan? Why're you laughing like that?" he whimpered.

"Oh...no reason..." I mused.

He paused to examine what I had in mind, and much to his disappointment, he couldn't find the answer. He decided to drag me away with him while he bothered Deidara.

After Tobi got smacked around by Deidara, Hidan and Kakuzu came out of the kitchen, both carrying huge bottles of sake. This, is going to be fun indeed...Too bad I won't be able to see Sasori-san drunk. That'd probably be most entertaining. Hmm, a girl can wish. Hidan and Kakuzu-san placed the bottles of sake on the table and floor.

"Let's get this fuckin' party started!" exclaimed Hidan.

Everyone but Sasori-san and I grabbed a cup and poured sake in it. Hell, even Tobi drank some! I just sat back while Sasori-san leaned on the wall. Soon they began to have a contest of who can drink the most. Hidan won with 24 cups, but of course, he was the most drunk.

"HA! Iwinyouloseeerssss." he slurred.

"Oh shuddup Hidan..." Kakuzu remarked.

"I'm bored, un..." Deidara ignored those two.

"Karaoke!" Tobi screamed as he punched his fist in the air.

At the mention of singing, I slowly crept up, inching towards Sasori-san, who now folded his arms across his chest, not wanting to be noticed. Sasori-san took heed of this though.

He raised an eyebrow, "Don't like singing?"

I blinked, "Wait, you're actually talking to me?"

He rolled his eyes, "No I'm barking in dog to you."

I cracked a grin, "So the cold puppet has a sense of humor, eh?"

He smiled, "Whoever said I was heartless?"

I shrugged, "So, do you sing?"

He was about to answer but winced and trembled and fell down to a sitting position, sliding off the wall slowly; his arms unfolded and now pressing against his ears.

"What..._is..._that?" he growled.

I was down on my knees, head banging against the wall to try to rid the pain, sadly no such luck.

I gritted my teeth, "Tobi...singing..."

I looked at the rest of the members. They were all withering in pain, Konan near passing out and Hidan's ears bleeding.

Hidan screamed, "Someone stop that fucker! He's making my Jashin damned ears bleed!"

"**Perhaps I should eat him. It'll do us all a favor. **_Yes...you should..._" agreed Zetsu-san.

Huh...so a drunken Zetsu is an agreeing Zetsu?

Zetsu-san was about to lunge at Tobi when I said, "Leader-sama would not be pleased."

"Who the fuck cares? Just stop the agony!" yelled Konan.

Note to self: Do not mess with a drunk Konan. Note taken.

People were about to murder him, before they could though, Sasori-san intervened with his chakra strings. He grabbed a hold of Tobi's hands and clamped them against his mouth, silencing the evil, damned menace for good.

After the karaoke contest, and hours of pain to my ears, I was extremely lucky not to be called up to sing. Sasori-san noticed relief on my face.

"So, what do you sound like?"

"Huh?" I blinked, hoping he wouldn't ask what I thought he would.

"Your singing."

Dammit! And just when I was hoping he wouldn't ask that dreaded question.

"Like dying cattle being run over by a tractor mixed in with Tobi's singing voice along with Hidan's." came my unemotional voice.

Sasori-san chuckled.

I gawked at him, "Did you just chuckle?"

He frowned, "Do we have to go over this again?"

"Okay okay, I was just kidding." the corner of my lips tugged into a smile.

"Truth or Dare!" screamed Kisame-san, trying to get me and Sasori-san's attention.

Sasori-san's mood dropped, "Must we play that..."

"Demonic, foolish, retarded, stupid ass game...?" I finished Sasori-san's sentence.

Kisame-san's grin grew, "Yes, yes you must."

Sasori-san glared at Kisame-san, "And if we don't...?"

Kisame-san and Sasori-san soon got involved in a glaring contest. Sasori-san looked at me, and caved in.

"Fine. You owe me for this."

So we sat in a circle with the rest of the Akatsuki members.

"Sasori-no-danna's up first, un!" Deidara beamed, "Truth or Dare, Sasori-no-danna?"

Sasori-san impatiently answered, "Dare."

I don't like the look of Deidara's face when Sasori-san answered. Shivers chilled down my spine, sending me a bad feeling.

"I dare you...to kiss Hoshi-chan."

By that time, everyone laughed out loud excluding me and Sasori-san. I started to sweat and I felt my face heat up. How I could blush in a puppet body was unknown to me. Why was I this nervous? It's just a harmless kiss...Sasori-san however, seemed unfazed.

"Is that all?" was Sasori-san's reply.

My face heated up some more. I think that my blush was redder than Sasori-san's hair!

The other members "Ooh-ed".

"Anxioustodoitain'tchapuppetboy?" slurred Hidan.

Sasori-san's face was as nonchalant as ever. He brushed Hidan off and got up from his spot in the circle and walked towards me. I wonder if they could all hear my drumming heart. When he reached me, he kneeled down, and what he did made the other Akatsuki outraged. He grabbed my hand, lifted it up to where his mouth was, and pecked it. Then he returned back to his spot.

"HEY! What was that bullshit?" raged Kakuzu.

I don't think I've been more relieved in my life. Hell, I think I would've been better off facing all the 5 Kages at the same time.

Sasori-san smirked, "You never said a specific place."

Itachi-san mumbled, "We'll get them next time."

Even Itachi-san was in on this? Dammit! I was sure he wouldn't get drunk. Oh Itachi-san, why have you failed me so? I feel so betrayed. Even Konan and Zetsu-san drank! And they're all out to get me...

The game progressed, most of the members picked dare. It was entertaining to watch to say the least. Hidan got dared to not cuss for a whole week, if he did he'd have to pay $1 to every member in the Akatsuki, courtesy of Kakuzu-san. Itachi-san got asked out of all the male Akatsuki, which one he'd like to be in bed with, Kakuzu-san got dared to burn all his money (mwuahahahaha, I arez evil), Hidan got dared to dress up in a pink frilly dress, flirt, and make out with Leader-sama (I pity the guy), and others. Sadly after Deidara's dare was done, it was my turn.

"I dare Hoshi to..."

My face paled, "I uhh...gotta go to sleep! I have a reallllly bad headache." I weakly smiled, inching towards the outside of the hallway.

"Don't be silly Hoshi-chan." Tobi chimed.

"I dare Hoshi to sing, un." smiled Deidara.

"WHAT? I'm _not_ singing." I glared.

"Fine. I'll let Kakuzu give you another dare, un."

"Kiss Sasori-san on the lips." mused the miser.

"Did I ever mention how much I hated you guys?" I glared.

"Yeah yeah now get the fuck on with it." grinned Hidan.

I bit my lip and sank down in my spot, looking at Sasori-san for help. Sasori-san seemed to have been biting his lip too. Was there really no way out of this?

"**Just kiss already.**" growled an anxious Zetsu-san.

Crap crap crap. I walked up towards him, might as well get it over with right? And in this puppet body I won't even feel it and neither would he. And it'll all be over in a split second. I nervously stopped in front of him and bent down so we were eye level. When I tried to kiss him though, I froze, ice solid. I couldn't move. I was too nervous. I couldn't do anything but stare. Sasori-san must've been tired of waiting, as always, because instead of me kissing him, he kissed me. Shock came over me. Still I couldn't move, but as time passed, I eased in it, and was about to kiss back, that is, until he pulled back. I looked in his eyes. They were warm, like melting chocolate. But the only thing melting was me.

After I realized that I was just kneeling there, staring at him, I jumped back and hurriedly returned to my spot. I was lucky that after that, no one paid attention to me because a tomato would look pale compared to my face. I just watched as the game was being played, lucky that I was no longer the victim. When the game ended though, the others decided to play something else while me and Sasori-san sat back.

A few minutes passed before Sasori-san called my attention, "Hoshi."

"Hm?" I looked over at him with curious eyes.

"Can you and I talk?" he asked.

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><p>Okay I have <em>seriously <em>got to stop making Sasori so OOC (in my opinion)! That was...weird...to write. Yes I know that this was cliché, but when I wrote "Let's have a party" in the last chapter, this is the type of fanfic that came to mind. The drunk characters were out of character, but I apologize for Sasori. Gahh...When I was planning to write this story I didn't think of him to be so...not Sasori like. At least he ain't like another Tobi? ...Okay I fail.


	12. Confessions

Thank you all for reading this story. Two new people have favorited this story. Yay! Those two people will be thanked at the end, like always. Okay now onto the story troops!

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><p><em>"Hoshi."<em>

_"Hm?" I looked over at him with curious eyes._

_"Can you and I talk?" he asked."_

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When we decided that the others would be too drunk to notice us, we quietly crept outside of the living room and into Sasori-san's room. The familiar scent of wood and sandpaper met my nose. The desk that was once filled with blueprints was now filled even more blueprints. Some were even on the floor due to the lack of space on the desk. However, a garbage can that I never noticed before was overfilled with rumbled up balls that had faint drawings of models, maybe of puppets?

Sasori-san walked over to the door and was satisfied when he heard the **click**, locking the door. He gestured me to sit down on the bed, so I did. I sat on the ledge and felt the bed slump down as my weight pushed on it. Then he grabbed a leather swivel chair and pulled it close to the bed. I cocked my head slightly, wondering what he wanted to talk about.

"Why don't you want to become immortal? By being a puppet, you've erased the human limitations, you've surpassed them. They no longer hold you back." he informed.

Of course he'd talk about this. If he's so hung up on this topic, then I guess I'll just admit everything to him.

"What's so good about being immortal? You'll live forever, sure. But if you're immortal, you'll live through time longer than anyone else. Meaning you'll live longer than most people. Meaning that they'll die. And you'll live right through that. Experiencing that disaster for all time. To feel that pain of losing a precious someone, that's one of the most painful things in the world. And to experience that through all your life? Even when you want to die, you can't do that. It's like you're trapped, in a bubble, encasing you, and strangling you forever. And you can't burst it. No matter how hard you struggle or try, it'll surround you no matter what. And you can't escape. That's a dark fate. A fate that I don't want to suffer.

"I lost my parents when I was born. They dumped me on the streets. I had to fend for myself. I didn't even know them, much less remember them. I know what you're thinking, "Why miss something that wasn't even there in the first place?". No matter if they were there or not, it still hurts no matter what. To never be held, to never be loved, to never be cherished. To never be anyone's special someone. I've already lost my family, I had no friends, and the emptiness was Hell itself. I don't even want to begin to imagine what that pain is like if I had them in the first place. To severe a bond **(1)**, that's probably more painful than never creating a bond. But no matter what, they still hurt. They still gnaw at your heart. Tugging your strings. Like a puppet. It controls you like a puppet master. Controlling your thoughts and actions. Always leaving you in the dark. Always replaying itself in your mind so it can haunt you forever. Leaving you until you have nothing else to think about but that, and that only. So you could live a life of despair.

"And besides, being a human puppet? It feels like you're all alone, another one of the most painful things in this cursed world. You're neither a human, yet you're not a puppet either. Which are you? Just a mix, just something that's a freak of nature. You belong in neither, yet you're part of both. Neither will accept you, for you're the other in their eyes. Maybe that's why I don't want to be a human puppet. Or a puppet at all. A puppet is something someone else controls. You have no say in what the controller of your strings say or do. And you can be easily tossed aside. Maybe that's why I don't want to remain a human puppet for the rest of my life; to be immortal is a curse. I don't care what other people want or say. It's a damn curse."

He averted his eyes to the floor, "I...I wanted to say...I'm s-...s-...so-..." he muttered.

If this wasn't so sincere, I would've laughed my head off. Poor guy, probably doesn't know how to apoligize. Probably never did in his life time. He was having a pretty hard time enunciating it. Hey, I could've stopped him, knowing full well what he wanted to say; but I wanted to hear it from his own lips.

"Sor-...sorry..." he sighed, finally able to say the dreaded word.

A giggle escaped my throat. Wait? _Giggle?_ Since when the fuck did I _giggle_? Oh Kami-sama, what was this guy doing to me? He seemed to give me a mini-glare, disapproval crystal clear that I had _giggled_ at his attempt for an apology. This only made me _giggle_ yet again. His mini-glare would've been affective on anyone else, but who could fear that joy sparkling in his eyes? Even though he was disappointed at my reaction, his eyes said otherwise.

"Okay okay, I accept your apology." I smiled.

"Really?" he raised at eyebrow.

Since he didn't believe me, I seized the opportunity to ask him, "On one condition."

The eyebrow raised higher, "And that is...?"

"Tell me why you were so vehement about the subject." I knew that this was a touchy subject, but my curiosity got the better of me.

He sighed, then rubbed his temples. Puppets had headaches? When he looked up, his eyes changed. They were back to their usual cold, hard stare. I sunk back into the bed. His gaze fixed onto my slightly affright ones.

"Do you really want to know?", his voice lowered.

I was about to shake my head, but then nodded slowly, slightly afraid of what his answer was gonna be.

Another sigh, "Fine. My...parents...were killed, when I was five. I was lonely, I had no friends. Often I only had my Grandma Chiyo to keep me company. After awhile, she noticed how lonely I was so she decided to teach me the art of puppetry. For a while I was entertained," Sasori smiled slightly, "but only for a little while. When she taught me, I soon began to create my own puppets. In fact, the first puppets I made were...of my parents...I thought that if I did, it'd be like they're here. Like they never left. And I would finally be able to be with them once again. To feel their touch, to be loved by them, to feel their strong arms wrap around me in a hug. To embrace me. Sadly I was mistaken. After all, they were only puppets. Cheap copies. When I accidentally let go of the chakra strings, they fell. Like the real ones, they fell to their doom. I quickly lost interest in those puppets after that. If they can't obey me and do what I want them to do, what's the use?"

A wash of pity drowned me. So Sasori-san had lost his parents. Just like me. And for him to create puppets in hopes of them being just like his real parents so he won't be lonely anymore? A mere child of five too. How I wished I could've been there for him. Maybe then, he wouldn't have turned out to be so stoic, so unfeeling, so...pained, hiding his feelings in that hard, dead puppet body of his.

Sasori-san's eyes widened for a second. When I looked up to see why, I didn't realize it but somehow, I had wrapped my arms around his neck, my wooden body pressing against his. And my head had looked up from its spot in his chest.

I blushed beet red, "G-gomennasai **(2)** Sasori-san!", loosening my grip around his neck.

"N-no..." he said.

Confused, I was about to ask him what he meant, until he startled me by placing his hands on my arm, firmly keeping them in their spot. I looked up at him, his eyes were shadowed, but somehow, he still managed to look peaceful. I eased into the position, placing my head on his chest.

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong>Okay that sounded A LOT like Sasuke's speech to Naruto. Didn't realize that until I wrote it. Well, you can use that speech to give a more in depth feeling to what Hoshi's saying. I would've but I think I'd reach to over 6K words for the chapter.

**(2)** - Sorry means "Gomennasai" in Japanese.

Finally done with that. I have to admit, I'm better at writing angst stories than romance or anything else actually. Well, that's what I think. Oh yeah! I'd like to thank Sunny-Bunny-Rose and XxSwallowxX for favorating this story! Thanks guys for reading and keeping up with this. It really means a lot.


	13. Surprise Surprise

This story is getting' mushy. Oh well, what can I expect? Maybe I should start an Angst story next. Oh yeah, heads up people. If you like my story, then I'm deciding to write a new one! It's gonna be HidanOC. The idea is completely original. Well, I'm pretty sure it is. I never saw or read any fanfics in all my life that used it. So it's going to be published right after I wrap this baby up.

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><p><em>"Sasori-san's eyes widened for a second. When I looked up to see why, I didn't realize it but somehow, I had wrapped my arms around his neck, my wooden body pressing against his. And my head had looked up from its spot in his chest.<em>

_I blushed beat red, "G-gomennasai Sasori-san!", loosening my grip around his neck._

_"N-no..." he said._

_Confused, I was about to ask him what he meant, until he startled me by placing his hands on my arm, firmly keeping them in their spot. I looked up at him, his eyes were shadowed, but somehow, he still managed to look peaceful. I eased into the position, placing my head on his chest."_

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_**Hoshi**_

After half an hour of lying on Sasori-san's chest, I lifted my head up to look at him. His eyes were closed, and he looked so serene and calm, as if he was having a pleasant dream. Since when did puppets sleep? Oh well, maybe I should just leave him alone. My arms had moved their way to his lower torso a few minutes ago. I gently unwrapped them and quietly got up from his legs which I was sitting on for the past half hour. Good thing no one walked in on us or it would've given them the wrong idea; my right leg was over his left leg while my left leg bound to his right with my arms around his lower abdomen.

I realized my hand was on his wrist, so as delicately as I could, I lifted it up. Suddenly, Sasori-san's hand shot forward to grab my wrist. Had I awakened him? I looked back at his face, his eyes were still closed. Maybe a dream?

"Hoshi...stay..." Sasori-san mumbled.

My eyes widened, and immediately, I felt heat resonating through my body; particularly towards my face. How lucky was I for him to still be asleep. I picked his fingers off my wrist and placed it on his stomach. Quietly, I sneaked towards his door, careful not to disturb him. As I walked out and silently closed the door, I took one long last look at him before completely confining him in his own room. I crept to my room through the many hallways. I had passed the living room, looking at the clock to see what time it was. 4 a.m. with everyone passed out in the living room. Kisame-san hogged the couch. Deidara was leaning on top of the couch, his arms stretched and rested on Kisame-san's head and stomach. Hidan sprawled onto the floor on his back, drooling and creating a pool of drool under his mouth. Konan passed out on the armchair while Kakuzu-san laid on the floor on his sides. Zetsu was leaning on the TV unconscious. As I looked around though, there was one person missing. Where the fuck was Tobi?

"He must be in his room." I murmured, quietly walking towards my room.

When I opened my door however, I nearly got knocked unconscious. You must be guessing that it was Tobi. Sadly, no. As I opened the door, shopping bags glomped me, covering me from head to toe. I really gotta clean up this mess. So for the next 2 hours, I spent it on organizing my room. The clothes were neatly piled in the closet. A huge plant covered the right side of my bed while another was next to my two doors. A pot of amazon lily flowers sat on the top shelf of my desk. Books were alphabetized in my bookshelf leaning against the walls. There was a cabinet that was filled with art supplies as well as a canvas on the wooden painting board stand. Though there were sketchpads and an extra cup of pencils beneath my bed. Sitting in the corner was an Ibanez AW300 Artwood Dreadnought left-handed Acoustic Guitar, a KORG M50-88 88 Key Synth Workstation Music Keyboard leaning against the wall beside the guitar, and a silver Gemeinhardt 3SB Conservatory Model Flute, B Footjoint lying on its side next to the flowers on top of the shelf.

"Perfect." I breathed, throwing my weapon pouch onto the nightstand next to my bed.

I let myself my fall on my back onto my soft bed. I decided to draw in my brand new sketchpad. Reaching from under the bed, I pulled out the sketchpad and a sharp pencil. Hmm...what to draw though...? Oh! I got it! This'll be perfect. Some contour lines here, a few streaks there, maybe some shading over in this area, let's outline this spot, maybe darkening over here'd be nice. Done!

Now that I've finished half of my sketchpad, there's nothing else to do really. Maybe I should try sleeping. I think I'll close my eyes and try to feel like I'm sleeping. It's worth a try isn't it? And besides, Sasori-san looked like he was sleeping, so I might be able to do it too. Darkness was all I saw as my eyelids closed.

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"Ohayou Hoshi-chan~" Tobi said, hurling himself at me as I curled into a ball in my sleep.

As his mask made contact to my face and his body slammed into mine, pain was all I could feel.

"Tobi!" I whacked him upside the head, "That hurt, dammit!"

Wait...pain? Feel? Hurt? Did I just felt what I think I felt? I scrambled to my feet, rushing over to the nightstand. Opening the weapon pouch, I reached inside, pulling out what felt like a handle of a kunai. I placed the pouch back on the nightstand and held out my left arm horizontally, clutching the kunai, I slashed down on the arm, hard. Sliding the kunai over my arm, I became enthralled as the dark crimson liquid dripped from the blade and my arm. Tobi seemed disturbed at my delight. I didn't care, I brought my arm up to my lips, my tongue sticking out to taste the beloved drink. I relished it, and sucked out every bit of blood I could muster from my arm **(1)**. Never had I been so delighted to drink my own blood. And that's saying a lot.

I had finished licking off all traces of blood on my arm and kunai when Tobi asked, "Uh, what's Hoshi-chan doing?"

"Trying to shower. Get out Tobi." I answered.

"Oh. Okay! Tobi will be a good boy and get out." complied Tobi as I walked to my closet.

I locked the door for privacy and gathered my clothes. Inside the bathroom I went and showered. After that relaxing hot shower, I got dressed, put on my Akatsuki cloak, and headed towards Sasori-san's room. I wanted to ask him how this was possible. When I reached his room however, he was sound asleep like a baby. My mouth twitched into a smile, my legs moving toward him. I went over to his bed, pulling off the covers I once sat on. I came over to him and gently placed the covers on him. I couldn't help myself but touch his cheeks with my hands.

My hopes of asking Sasori-san about this topic failed. Maybe Leader-sama would know. He _is_ the Leader for fuck's sake. As silently as I could, I carefully stepped out of the room and closed the door. This was going to be a long walk to Leader-sama's office...Better get going.

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**Knock knock.**

"Come in." came Leader-sama's voice.

I turned the doorknob, stepped into the room, and closed the door behind me.

"Ah, Hoshi. Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Leader-sama.

"I...wanted to know, how is it possible? How am I human? Did Sasori-san have anything to do with this?" I questioned the man.

"So...you've noticed. The answer is simple. When Sasori turned himself into a human puppet, he had a reversal Jutsu, to make himself human again if he wished. But it would only work once on each person. He decided to create this Jutsu since he wasn't sure if he could stand being a puppet, but he surpassed his own expectations."

"Oh, I see. Did he, by the way, turn himself human?" I asked expectantly.

Leader-sama cocked an eyebrow, "Now why would he ever do that?"

My hopes fell. "Oh...no reason. I was just curious."

Leader-sama nodded, "Is that all?"

"Hai. Thank you Leader-sama." I bowed and left the room.

I sighed as I walked towards the kitchen. I was stupid for thinking that he'd turn human just for me. That was such a foolish thought. No way would it even be possible. And why for me? It's not like he'd like me or anything. Love can do such foolish things to a person can't they? I should've known better. Sasori-san doesn't even seem like the type to love. I guess what they say is true; dreams are dreams because it'll never become reality.

A quite furious outburst snapped me back to reality though. It seems that Hidan was fighting with Kakuzu-san.

"You fuckin' cheap ass! Why don't you go out and buy more groceries? We need FOOD dammit! You fuckin' cheap ass old fucker." Hidan yelled.

Kakuzu-san seemed annoyed, "Why don't YOU go fuckin' buy it? I'm not the one who wants food here."

"Well if you'd just gimme the damn money then maybe I will!" Hidan fumed.

Kakuzu growled, "Give _you_ money? I think I'd rather run around the Fire Country 5 times, naked."

Hidan opened his mouth to shout something but I intervened. "Ahem."

They both turned their heads to look at me, "Maybe I can solve this...dilemma."

"How?" they said in unison.

I reached in my pants pocket, pulling out a handful of money. Kakuzu's eyes morphed into money signs as they both jumped at me. Just when Kakuzu was about to steal it, Hidan snatched it from my hand.

"Ha! Take that you old fucker! This money's goin' to food." Hidan laughed at Kakuzu, who was now currently on the floor.

"Shut up you stupid albino." he growled.

"Come on Hoshi. Let's go buy some damn food." Hidan marched to the door.

I shrugged and followed him, calling out behind me, "Sorry Kakuzu-san." and ran to catch up to Hidan.

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_**Sasori**_

Opening my chocolate brown eyes, a sight of my covers covering me came into view. Where was Hoshi? I must've fell asleep and she left. I grabbed the covers and neatly folded them on the bed. I should go to her room and thank her. I got up and opened the door, locking it after I left. Great, now to walk all the way over there to her room.

**Knock knock knock.**No answer. What was that girl doing? I turned the doorknob and pushed slightly, opening the door. Empty. I stepped in and closed the door behind me. It seems that she's been decorating her room. I scanned my eyes over her room. A guitar, keyboard, and flute? Interesting. Maybe she does sing. I'll have to ask her that later. A canvas? So she likes art. _Very_ interesting. When I looked over her room once more, something caught my eye. What was that on her bed? A sketchpad?

I walked over, picking up the sketchpad that laid there in the open. Turning the pages, my mouth slightly opened as I gaped. Sure her drawings were good. In fact, they were perfect. It looked just like what it was suppose to be. But what shocked me most was that she drew mostly portraits of all the Akatsuki, and most of them...were of me.

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><p><strong>(1) - <strong>Meap. Sorry I made her seem like such a vampire, and so bloodthristy too! But that's part of her (and my) character so I couldn't help it. If I freaked you guys out. Good! Naw just kiddin', sorry bout that.

Well this chapter wasn't really anything interesting, nothing really happened. But I wanted to include it anyway, for all those people who love cheesy stuff. Anyways, I'd like to thank glitterthorn for favorating this story! And for acting as my unofficial beta. Also thank you D.S. Willow for adding this story to your alerts. Thank you all for reading. Till next time!


	14. Cookies!

_"Turning the pages, my mouth slightly opened as I gaped. Sure her drawings were good. In fact, they were perfect. It looked just like what it was suppose to be. But what shocked me most was that she drew mostly portraits of all the Akatsuki, and most of them...was of me."_

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I walked down the corridors, searching for Hoshi. Gah...it's like that girl's never around when you need her! Where could she be...? As I strolled in the kitchen, I find Kakuzu there: sitting and counting his money. Maybe he knows where she is.

"Kakuzu, do you perhaps know where Hoshi is?"

The old miser looked up from his money counting, "She went with Hidan to buy some groceries a few hours ago. She should be back any time."

"I see, thank you." I left to retreat in the living room.

Hidan? _Hidan? _was with her? _Hidan_ might RAPE HER! Oh wait...never mind. His religion doesn't allow that sort of thing. Thank Jashin for that. Though his religion DOES allow him to rip her to shreds! And what if he sacrifices her? I shouldn't have turned her human...She's so vulnerable now. But then again, Leader-sama forbade us from killing her. But then...Hidan was never one to follow laws or rules...ah Kami-sama, why does she have to be so damn difficult? They better come home soon...who knows what Hidan might be doing with her. As if on cue, the door to the Akatsuki base slammed open.

"Well that was fun, we should do it more often." strolled in the two with an armful of grocery bags.

"Fuck yeah. FOOD! FINALLY. I've missed you so fuckin' much." Hidan yelled as he hugged a bag of groceries once they set it down on the kitchen counter.

"Hey Sasori-san." Hoshi waved.

I gave a slight wave back, then watched what bizarre antic Hidan was up to. He snatched a bag of soba noodles **(1)** from the bag, then grabbed a pot from the counter and placed it on the stove. A metal bowl was in the sink filled with water and he placed the noodles there. Then he filled the pot with water. He continued to get everything ready and then began cooking. After some time later, the heavenly aroma filled the air. Who would've thought that Hidan could be such a great cook? Soon I wanted to taste the noodles, wondering if it would taste as good as it smelled. But then I reminded myself, "There's no way you can eat that. You can't eat remember?". I soon remembered Hoshi's speech. I looked over at her, she hugely grinned as she anticipated for the food. Perhaps she tasted Hidan's cooking before? Hidan came over and placed a bowl in front of her and an empty space beside her, then grabbed a chair and sat next to her.

"Thank you _Master Cooker._" she smirked.

"Damn straight." Hidan returned the smirk and they both began to eat.

I stared at them lazily. Kakuzu left the room to go on a bounty hunt. He grumbled something about "Hidan wasting money on food". After Hidan finished, he said he had to go sacrifice to Jashin or something along those lines. When Hoshi finished her meal, she went to the sink to clean off both Hidan and her plates. I was about to ask her about her sketchpad but then I realized, she'll know I've been in her room. I think I'll keep it to myself for now. So I just stared at her, watching her every move. She seemed to notice and stiffened. I let out a chuckle.

"What's so funny?" she puffed out her cheeks.

I placed my arm on the table and leaned my head on it, "Nothing."

When she finished placing the last dried dish into the cabinet, Tobi and Deidara pranced in.

"Hello Hoshi-chan~" sang Tobi.

I covered my poor ears.

"Shut up Tobi, un." Deidara whacked Tobi in the head.

"Hoshi-chan, Tobi is hungry," Tobi clung himself to Hoshi's arm, "Can Hoshi make cookies?"

Hoshi laughed, "Sure Tobi."

"Make a batch for me too!" beamed Deidara.

"'kay." agreed the girl.

"Deidara-senpai! Tobi has to show you something! Come with me." Tobi scurried out of the kitchen.

Deidara face-palmed, but he still followed the hyper man anyhow. Now Hoshi had gathered all the ingredients, scattering them all over the counter. Turning on the oven to 375 degrees, she then mixed the butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl, beating them for one minute. After that she added sugar and brown sugar. Next she beat the ingredients together for a short while and added in eggs and vanilla. More beating. Then a new bowl was needed, which she combined flour, salt, and baking soda into. When she finished with that, she poured the contents of the second bowl into the first, more beating again. She poured half of the mixture into the second bowl, seeing as how the first bowl was full to the brim. She grabbed a huge metal tray and laid it on the table. Then she grabbed the first bowl and began spraying non-stick spray onto it. Now she grabbed the bowl and tilted it, making it spill its contents onto the tray.

I sat up from my chair and sauntered over to the counter, placing my hands on the second bowl and began mimicking her, except on the other side of the tray. She looked up with her azure eyes, wide with surprise. I cracked a grin and her eyes began to soften. When we were about to meet in the middle of the tray though, her elbow accidentally met my arm, causing me to jerk and spill some of the dough on her hand. She glared at me and I smiled innocently. Before I could apologize, her hands dipped into the bowl of chocolate chips, and she hurled some at me. I growled as some chocolate smeared my cheek and hands. She replied with a giggle. I decided to get revenge, reaching some of my cookie dough and smudging it across her face. Her mouth was open as she gaped at me. She decided to respond by grabbing the frosting in a tube. She wasn't...she wouldn't dare...would she? **Squirt**. She did...I wiped the frosting out of my glaring eyes, reached for the tube near my side, and smirked at her widening eyes. **Squirt**.

This. Means. War.

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30 minutes passed and the war was over. To say that the kitchen along with us looked like crap, was comparing God to an ant. Hoshi decided to surrender, and placed the tray into the oven to bake for 10 minutes. Using the remaining time, we decided to clean ourselves up and back at the kitchen. After showering and changing into new clothes, I decided to ditch the cloak. It was hot in the kitchen. When I walked into the kitchen, Hoshi was already there. She pulled out the fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. The wonderful smell rose in the air and greeted my nose. I breathed it in deep, craving to want to eat the cookies. But that dreaded thought always crawled in the back of my mind of not being able to eat. I decided to look at Hoshi instead. She was already at the counter.

"What're you doing?" I asked.

"Making a fresh batch of cookies. I'm hungry too. After all, having a food fight exhausts me," she made a face at me, "and Hidan might want some."

"Well you're the one that shoved my arm." I pointed out.

She shrugged, then went back to making the cookies. I was bored and there was nothing else to do so I went up to her and grabbed the second bowl.

She stared at me, "No food fighting again."

I rolled my eyes, "Hai hai..."

After awhile, I got bored. Apparently so did she.

"I'm bored..." she complained.

"Why don't you sing to me then?" I smirked at my idea.

She stared at me in horror, "Fuck no!"

I frowned deeply, "Why not?"

Her eyes transfixed on mine, then she stuck out her tongue, "I only sing to those who I love and trust."

"And I'm not one of them? I'm heartbroken." I mocked as I clutched the spot where I my heart was.

I was in fact hurt that she didn't trust or love me, but I wasn't about to let her know that. She shrugged it off. I opened my mouth to say something but then the **Ding! **sound of the timer interrupted me. Hoshi shuffled towards the oven and opened it. The heavenly smell soon filled the air again. She grabbed a large plate and settled it on the table. Then she pulled the tray of fresh cookies out and dumped them onto the plate where they fell neatly into a pile. Deidara and Tobi seemed to have picked up the aroma. They rushed into the kitchen at once.

"Yay! Hoshi made cookies!" Tobi chimed.

"It sure smells good, hm." Deidara added.

"Thanks, your cookies are on the tray right over there." Hoshi pointed.

In an instant, half of the cookies that were once on the tray disappeared. My frown grew larger as their unmannerly eating habits chewed down on the cookies like heathens. Some of the uneaten pieces flew onto the floor. And we were going to have to clean up this mess too.

"Wow Hoshi, you should bake more often, un." Deidara grinned.

"Bake more and more cookies for Tobi!" chirped Tobi.

Hoshi stuck out her tongue. After the whole tray of cookies were gone, Hidan came in and the whole scene mostly replayed. Hoshi ate some of the cookies, but soon said that she was full, leaving the plate with a dozen cookies.

"Eh, I'm tired. I'ma go sleep. Night Sasori-san." yawned Hoshi.

"Night..." I replied.

I then left the kitchen and headed towards my room, thoughts still lingering in my head. Then I reached my desk and took out a blueprint. Maybe I should start working on my new puppets.

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_**No One's POV**_

As quietly as possible, the shadowed man crept into the kitchen. In the middle of the table laid Hoshi's baked cookies. The shadowed man's stomach growled. Embarrassed, he grabbed his stomach, hoping for it to quiet down. When he was sure the coast was clear, he walked towards the table. His hands reached for a cookie on the plate, when he felt that the cookie was in his reach, he brought it up to his lips. Silently, he began nibbling on it. Pleased with its taste, he began to nibble on another cookie when he finished with his first. Soon the whole plate was gone. And so was he.

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><p><strong>(1) - <strong>I got tired of everyone saying they only eat Ramen, so I decided to make them eat something else!

God, this story made me hungry...and yes the instructions to making the cookies are real. So: Who is this shadowed man? Can you guys guess? Well, all will be revealed soon my pretties. -evil cackle-


	15. Zetsu's Greenhouse

Finally! Sorry for the long wait but my acc was bein' glitchy and wouldn't lemme upload any docs. So here it is. Chapter 15? And this will also be in Sasori's POV! So yeah...again, sorry for the OOC...

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><p><em><strong>No One's POV<strong>_

_"As quietly as possible, the shadowed man crept into the kitchen. In the middle of the table laid Hoshi's baked cookies. The shadowed man's stomach growled. Embarrassed, he grabbed his stomach, hoping for it to quiet down. When he was sure the coast was clear, he walked towards the table. His hands reached for a cookie on the plate, when he felt that the cookie was in his reach, he brought it up to his lips. Silently, he began nibbling on it. Pleased with its taste, he began to nibble on another cookie when he finished with his first. Soon the whole plate was gone. And so was he."_

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_**Sasori**_

I sighed, putting a wooden hand that was missing two fingers down on my table. Judging from how many hours it felt like has passed, I guessed that it was alread_y_morning. I stood up and pushed my chair in, then walked towards the door that led to my room. I didn't really use it much anyway. Only for sketching out my new creations and that was probably it. I closed my door to the woodshop and opened the other door that led to the hallway. When I did, a scene of Hoshi and Zetsu walking together filled my eyes. They walked right in front of my door, and when they saw me they stopped.

"Ohayou Sasori-san." smiled Hoshi.

"_Ohayou Sasori-san_." Zetsu greeted.

"Ohayou Hoshi, Zetsu," I murmured, "Where're you guys going?"

Hoshi's eyes brightened up, "I'm gonna see Zetsu's greenhouse! I bet it's beautiful."

Zetsu smiled, well, the white side did anyway. Zetsu? She's going with ZETSU? Zetsu might EAT her. Since he was a cannibal. And he couldn't really resist the urges of eating someone if he was starving... That girl has _got_ to stop hanging with dangerous people. I mean, look at Hidan, and Zetsu? What next, Kisame?

"I see...," I raised an eyebrow, "May I accompany you?"

Now it was Zetsu's turn to raise an eyebrow and Hoshi to stare at me. I smiled at their reactions.

"Sure, I don't see what harm it can do. Ne, Zetsu-san?" Hoshi smiled up at the man (or plant...).

"_Hai_..." Zetsu watched me carefully.

He was probably thinking that I was planning something, maybe burn down his greenhouse. Silly Zetsu, why would I ever do that? That was planned for two months later...

And off we went. The air singed with uncomfortable silence, except for our footsteps that echoed through the empty hallways. Soon Hoshi became uncomfortable with the awkward silence. She began whispering to the plant man. I tried to listen in on their conversations, and all I heard were things about how the plants grew, what type of plants Zetsu cultivated, and other useless information of the sort. I wondered why Hoshi seemed to be so excited about Zetsu's garden anyway. Was it really that beautiful?

As if on cue, my question was soon answered. We had walked outside of the Akatsuki base, turned around to a corner, and there it was. The building was shaped as a dome. To say it was gargantuan was to say the least. The material seemed to be greyish white and opaque. When we walked inside however, it was as if everything magically transformed. The walls of the dome that seemed opaque outside was transparent inside. It was like an indoor rainforest of some sort. There was a mini waterfall that flowed crystal clear water through half of the place. Probably to water all the plants. And the plants, they were in every shape, size, and color you could imagine. Butterflies flew around to kiss flowers as animals like furry bunnies hopped around and sniffed some plants, wondering if they were good enough to eat.

I stared in awe, and so did Hoshi, "Maybe I won't burn this place after all..." I mumbled, barely audible.

But somehow Hoshi heard me and so did Zetsu. Zetsu gave me a death glare and Hoshi elbowed me in the stomach, hard.

"Shut up." Hoshi hissed.

Hoshi went along with Zetsu, where he was giving her a tour of the place. I knew that I wasn't wanted, after my comment. So I scanned the place and leisurely walked over to a shady tree and sat under it, letting the shadows consume me. Feeling at peace, I decided to sketch this place. Nothing better to do. So I pulled out my sketchpad from my Akatsuki cloak and took out a pencil in my pocket.

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"Done." I smiled, admiring my work.

For some reason, it felt good for once, not to be sketching puppet designs and still enjoy it **(1)**. As I was deepening the shade on the leaf of a tree in the corner, I heard footsteps approaching. Looking up, I saw that it was none other than Zetsu himself. I sent him a questioning glance to why he was here.

"**What're you really here for, Akasuna no Sasori?**" Zetsu demanded.

I scanned around, "Where's Hoshi?"

"_She's gonna back to her room to rest. Now answer my question_."

I gazed at him; then a question came to mind, "What were you guys talking about when she was here?"

Zetsu sent a questioning look, "_**Things.**_**Why would you wanna know?**"

After a few minutes of silence, I asked, "Did she...talk about me?" I trailed off, taking my gaze off of him and looking towards the tree that I was sketching just a few moments ago.

Zetsu seemed startled, then realized and smirked, "**So she's the reason why you're here...**"

I shrugged, still avoiding his gaze, "Perhaps..."

Zetsu's smirk grew wider, "_Well...to answer your question_," if his smirk grew wider, I think it'd eat up his whole face, "_she did._"

My eyes widened, "R-really?"

"**This is sure a sight to see...Akasuna no Sasori, being reduced to a stuttering fool, by a girl. Who woulda thought?**"

"Shut up." I seethed.

I closed my sketchpad, put its place back in my cloak, and got up, ready to leave.

Zetsu lost his smirk, but a smile replaced it instead, "_You know Sasori, this one's a keeper._"

I closed my eyes in thought, and smiled, "I know." and walked out of the greenhouse to return to my room.

Before I left the greenhouse though, I heard Zetsu whisper something.

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_**Zetsu**_

Hoshi and I had talked about Akasuna no Sasori when he disappeared somewhere. We figured he was out of earshot, so it was safe. Hoshi's eyes seemed to gleam whenever she talked about him. Suddenly she asked a question that startled me.

"Do you...," she hesitated her question, "do you think...that he might like me back?" her eyes seem to droop, like a flower hit by falling snow.

"**Who knows...Sasori isn't one to love.**_But you might have a chance_." I encouraged her.

"Really? You really think that?" Hoshi's eyes brightened.

"_Of course_." I smiled.

"Okay, thank you Zetsu-san. I think I'm going back to my room now. Thank you for bringing me here." she grinned.

And with that, she walked outside of the greenhouse. I looked as her figure slowly became fuzzy and faded. Soon she was out of sight. I got up and started to walk around the forest-like scenery. I stopped in my tracks when I saw Sasori. He was still here? And it seems that he had been sketching. Why was he here in the first place anyway? I approached him, question in mind. He seemed to notice my presence and looked up with a gaze that said "What do you want?"

"**What're you really here for, Akasuna no Sasori?**" I demanded.

Sasori seemed to look around, searching for something. When it didn't enter his sights, his usual frown seemed to deepen.

"Where's Hoshi?" he asked.

"_She's gonna back to her room to rest. Now answer my question_." I was getting impatient with his stalling.

He seemed to think for a moment, then asked, "What were you guys talking about when she was here?"

I was confused. Why would he care? Could he actually...? No...Though it was most possible. Time to find out.

"_**Things.**_**Why would you wanna know?**"

He hesitated, not wanting to admit his true feelings. He seemed to be embarrassed and didn't meet my gaze. After awhile though, he couldn't handle it and asked, "Did she...talk about me?"

I was taken back. So it was true! This is getting good...

"**So she's the reason why you're here...**" I smirked.

"Perhaps...", he still didn't meet my gaze.

My smirk grew and grew, "_Well...to answer your question_, _she did._"

Sasori's expression was priceless.

"R-really?" he stuttered.

Who would've thought that a mere girl could do this to the great puppet master, Akasuna no Sasori?

"**This is sure a sight to see...Akasuna no Sasori, being reduced to a stuttering fool, by a girl. Who woulda thought?**" I had to resist the temptation to laugh out loud.

"Shut up." he was not pleased with my remarks.

I decided not to rudely remark him anymore. He was beyond angry and even more embarrassed. He got up, putting his sketchpad in his cloak first, and was about to leave before I stopped him.

"_You know Sasori, this one's a keeper._"

He seemed to enjoy that, for he smiled peacefully and closed his eyes. Probably thinking of her smiling face. He began to walk away and when I was sure he was out of range, I whispered, "_For she's madly in love with you._"

Then he left just like that.

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><p><strong>(1)<strong> - This is a reference to SukiTakayoshi and my chat. For the chapter "Cookies!" she said that it was her favorite chapter since Sasori actually had fun with something other than puppets.

Also, I'd like to thank SukiTakayoshi and OCcreator for reviewing Of Puppets and Love. Thanks to SukiTakayoshi, OCcreator, and xXcookies898Xx for favoriting this story! And for SukiTakayoshi for adding it to their Story Alerts. Now for the people who enjoyed my ZetsuOC One-Shot, thank you to and SukiTakayoshi for reviewing! Thank you to animatedgemini, SukiTakayoshi, and ShyAnimeGurl44 for favoriting Zetsu's Little Flower! Also, special thanks to ShyAnimeGurl44 for being the first to favorite me as one of their favorite authors. I'd just like to say that I really appreciate you guys liking my stories that much. So bye for now.


	16. New Mission

After this chapter there'll be...2 or 3 more chapters. 4 at the most. But that's it. This story's coming to a close! So keep an eye out for more chapters. Again, this one is pretty much useless. Well, except the end. Sorry that this chapter's short, but there's not much to tell till the next chapter.

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><p><em><strong>Zetsu<strong>_

_"You know Sasori, this one's a keeper."_

_He seemed to enjoy that, for he smiled peacefully and closed his eyes. Probably thinking of her smiling face. He began to walk away and when I was sure he was out of range, I whispered, "For she's madly in love with you."_

_Then he left just like that."_

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_**Hoshi**_

I walked back to my room after the conversation Zetsu and I had in his greenhouse. Was what he said really true? Did I really have a chance at gaining the puppet master's heart? It seemed to be impossible however. Maybe...Suddenly I knocked into something hard.

"Ow..." I rubbed my head.

I felt something wet on my finger tips. Wet? I brought down my fingers to look at the liquid. Crimson, blood? I licked it to get it off my fingers. It tasted...different...I looked up at the thing that I bumped in. Silver hair? Oh Kami-sama...I jumped back, startled.

"Gomennasai Hidan." I apologized.

He just nodded. I took a full look at him. His hair was mixed in with blood. His face was smeared with some blood dripping off of his chin, creating a path of blood on the ground we stood. He didn't have his Akatsuki cloak on, showing off his bloody chest to the world. In fact, everything about him was almost soaked in blood, and he carried a sharp metal pole of some sort that dripped with blood.

"What happened to you?" came my shocked voice.

He grinned. Then I realized how stupid my question was when my ends landed on the rosary.

I gawked at him, "A ritual?"

He proudly nodded and smirked, "One of the best yet."

I stupidly poked him in the chest on this spot that had blood gushing from it. From the looks of the torn, red muscles around the hole that showed some of his intestines, he'd stabbed it. He groaned in pain and pleasure.

"Damn that hurts so good." he purred.

I looked at my finger, it was soiled with his blood. I rubbed against it, getting some of it off my fingers.

"So where were you headed?" I asked.

"No where in fuckin' particular. I was hoping to get some damn candy though. I need somethin' sweet to eat." he shrugged.

"Oh, you haven't seen Sasori-san around have you?"

He raised his eyebrow, "Hell no...why...?" he smirked at the last question.

"No reason..."

His smirk grew and I backed away from him, "Umm...okay. I'll go to my room then. See ya." I waved.

I opened my door and scanned around the room. My eyes instantly landed on my instruments. Maybe...I should write a song to let out my feelings.

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_**Hidan**_

As I walked down the cold hallways, I was planning to go to the bathroom to clean up first. That is, until I came across Sasori. What was that btich doin' outta his room? He seemed to have read my fuckin' mind 'cause he looked met my gaze.

"What do you fuckin' want?" I huffed.

"Ne, you and Hoshi talk a lot right?" he asked.

"What's it to you, puppet boy?" I made a face.

"I just need an answer." he shifted his eyes away.

"An answer to...?"

He shifted his weight uncomfortably. Wonder what he's so fuckin' nervous 'bout. I raised my eyebrow, studying him.

"Something about Hoshi." he finally said.

I smirked, "I see where this shit is going..." wiggling my eyebrows suggestively.

I fuckin' swear I saw a bright pink blush appear on his cheeks, but it disappeared as soon as it appeared. Maybe I'm goin' fuckin' paranoid...He was still avoiding to meet my eyes. Since when did fuckin' Sasori like a chick? That bitch sure is a miracle...

"Has she...ever...talked...'bout me?"

I shrugged, "Fuck yeah. She just asked me a few minutes ago where you were actually."

I pointed to her room. He nodded and hurriedly headed towards her room. I shook my head.

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_**Sasori**_

A mental sigh escaped in my head. Maybe I should just confess. I mean...what's there to lose, right? My hand touched the cold, wooden door that led to her room. Here goes nothing...Before I could though, a melodic tune that was coming from what sounded like a piano filled the air. For a few moments, I just stood there, listening to the heavenly sound fill my ears. Soon a voice started to sing, it sounded even more angelic than the piano **(1)**. But before she could continue onto the second word, I heard Konan's voice and the singing instantly stopped as the piano's tune trailed off.

"Sasori?"

"Hai?" I turned around to face her.

The door slowly opened, revealing Hoshi. She seemed surprised to see me. I stepped out of the doorway so she could do the same.

"Is there something the matter Konan?" she asked.

"Well, it seems that Leader-sama has assigned you both a mission."

Again? Hoshi seemed to think the same thing.

"Is this going to be just us?" she questioned the bluenette.

"No, Deidara will accompany you. You three are to capture the Shukaku. The jinchūriki is the Kazekage, Gaara. You are to leave at once, after you're done packing that is. I've already informed Deidara. He told you guys to meet him outside the Akatsuki base when you were done." Konan informed.

"Hai." our voices blended together.

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><p><strong>(1)<strong> - Sorry about making her "angelic" singing seem like the most perfect thing in the world and also making her a great artist. But it's part of the plot. So if you think that that part's Mary-Sue, I'm extremely sorry.

Finally some action! (Yes this will follow the Naruto story, so the next few chapters are just going to be repeats of the Anime. And you know what that means! Ahh angst...don't you just love that? If you don't get it, I'm not gonna spoil it for you. Also I'd like to thank Kuro neko dattebayo for reviewing, favoriting, and adding this story to her Story Alerts. Thank you all~


	17. Let the Mission, Begin!

Part 17! Some shit's bout to go DOWN peepz! XD. Ahh, this and the next chapter are probably going to be my faves! Finally some action. This is going to be a LONG, DESCRIPTIVE chapter. It's just basically a fight between Gaara vs Deidara (full detail from Anime) so I suggest you skip the parts where Deidara starts fighting because it's just gonna be all from the Anime if you hate repeats. Have fun reading!

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><p><em>"You three are to capture the Shukaku. The jinchūriki is the Kazekage, Gaara. You are to leave at once, after you're done packing that is. I've already informed Deidara. He told you guys to meet him outside the Akatsuki base when you were done." Konan informed.<em>

_"Hai." our voices blended together."_

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_**Hoshi**_

I packed some food and water and my usual weapons. The trip to Sunagakure was going to be long...As I went outside, Sasori-san was back in Hiruko. He wore the straw hat, and so did Deidara. I placed the straw hat on top of my natural black hair. It was too big for me and covered half of my face.

"Yo, un!" Deidara smiled.

I smiled back at him. And our long walk to Sunagakure began...I had brought my sketchpad along with me, just in case I get bored during the ride there. I expected Deidara to make a clay bird so we can all ride on it. But sadly, Sasori-san intervened with the plan. Apparently he doesn't like flying on Deidara's "stupid creations". Soon we reached the desert. I sighed, bored out of my mind. I took out my sketchpad and pencil, trying to sketch. But whenever I tried, a gust of wind always blew and ruined my sketch. I soon got irritated and cursed at the wind under my breath. Deidara looked over and saw my sketchpad.

"What've you got there, hm?" he walked closer to me to get a better look.

"A fucked up sketch that the wind oh so hates?" I sighed irritably.

"Can I see, hm?" Deidara asked.

A blush rose to my cheeks. He'd see the portraits I drew of the Akatsuki! And mostly, Sasori-san...

"Oi, you're blushing, un!" laughed Deidara.

Now it was time for Sasori-san to look over. I glared at Deidara.

"Shut up!" I exclaimed.

It took a moment for him to reply, but when he did, I was glad that he dropped the subject.

"Oi! You're human again, un?" Deidara asked.

"No, I'ma freakin' wooden puppet that can defy all logic and 'blush'." I glared.

Deidara and I argued and talked until nightfall. Honestly, it was entertaining, seeing as how there was nothing else to do. Though Sasori-san seemed to be irritated. Oh right, I forgot that he liked silence. My bad...I hope I didn't anger him too much. After all, an angry Sasori is a bad Sasori.

"Hoshi, un. Are you tired yet?" Deidara asked.

I pondered for a bit, "Not really."

"We'll be traveling nonstop until we're halfway there, hm. Think you can manage that, un?"

"I guess. I'm not a ninja for nothin' ya know." I grinned.

Even though I wasn't tired, I was bored. Out. Of. My. Mind. And there was nothing I could do but walk. I then asked Deidara if I could sit on one of his clay birds to draw. He agreed and made one for me. The first few hours, I drew Hiruko and Deidara walking in the desert. Soon that became repetitive so I decided to draw things that popped up in mind. I soon developed a craving for Ponta **(1)** and drew that. Deidara was curious about what I kept drawing, so when I set my sketchpad down to rub my sore hand, he snatched it.

"Oi!" I growled.

Deidara waved it in the air _just_ out of my reach.

"Give that back!" I yelled at him.

"Why're you so defensive on it, un?" he smirked, "Got anything..._secretive_ in here?"

Deidara opened the first page of the cover slowly so that he could taunt me some more. I growled and leaned to the edge of the bird, extending my arm to reach my sketchpad. Instead, what happened next caught me off guard. I had inched a little too close off the edge of the clay bird and I almost fell off the thing. Just when I was about to fall flat on my face, Sasori-san caught me with Hiruko. My face heated up, no matter how hard I tried to hide the blush. Deidara raised an eyebrow at my reaction. My face was a little too close for comfort next to Sasori-san's, even if he was just in Hiruko, making my face heat up even more. Deidara exchanged looked from me, to Sasori-san, to my sketchpad, and back.

"A-arigatou **(2)** Sasori-san." I muttered under my breath.

"Hn," Sasori-san grunted.

"Don't turn into Itachi on us, un." Deidara rolled his eyes.

I tugged on Sasori-san's cloak, signaling that I wanted to be let down. Sasori-san gently placed me on the ground. I looked over at Deidara, wanting to snatch back my sketchpad until my face got drained of its color. He already opened it...and was now looking at every single page...

"DEIDARA!" rang my voice.

Deidara looked up from my sketchpad, face innocent, "Un?"

"Don't play innocent..." I hissed.

"What do you mean, un?" he still had that dumbfounded look on his face.

I face-palmed, sighing, "Never mind..."

I was too embarrassed than mad anyway. I'll let him off the hook. Just this _once._ After that, it was total silence. Deidara just kept staring at me and Sasori-san. It was, to say the least, uncomfortable...I guess he knew now. Why Kami-sama...why...

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A few days flew by and we've been walking through this scorching desert that seemed to have no end. We were halfway to our destination now and just like Deidara said, we've taken a break. We set up camp in a cave that we found. Just in case if there were any sand storms we'd be safe from harm. Sasori decided to be the night watcher since he couldn't sleep. I chose to sleep beside a rock that was close to the campfire we set. As soon as I closed my eyes, I was in LaLa Land.

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_**Deidara**_

I watched Sasori-no-danna sit guard near the entrance of the cave. He seemed to be staring out in the distance, thinking of something. I looked over at Hoshi, and when I was sure that she was asleep, I crawled over to sit beside Sasori-no-danna.

"Ne, Sasori-no-danna?"

"What is it, brat?" the deep husky voice responded.

"Do you think that Hoshi has taken a liking to you, un?" I asked.

He grunted, "What makes you think that?"

"I saw her sketchpad, un. More than half of it was filled with your protraits, hm." I replied.

"Really now?" Sasori-no-danna sounded bored.

I smirked at my next question, "Do you?"

"Do I what?" he avoided the question.

"Do you like her too?" and my smirk grew.

"Get to sleep, brat." he scowled.

My smirk was still on my face as I crawled back to where the campfire was. I curled up beside it and grinned, for I knew the answer to my question: Yes.

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"Oi, brat. Wake up."

Sunlight had washed all over my face. My eyes slowly fluttered open. I rubbed my eyes of their drowsiness. Slowly my blurred vision cleared, revealing Hiruko standing over me. I slowly sat up and looked at Hoshi. Still asleep. I crawled over to her side, shaking her shoulders lightly.

"Oi Hoshi, un. Wake up before Sasori-no-danna gets impatient, un."

"Mmm..." she murmured something incoherent.

I shook her again. Same response. Sasori-no-danna was getting impatient. _Very_ impatient.

"Get up or I'll throw cold water in your face." he barked.

Instantly she awoke and sat straight up, "I'm up! I'm up!"

I laughed at her and she glared at me, which just made me laugh even more.

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After what seemed like days (which it actually was), the sight of Sunagakure finally appeared. I outwardly sighed a loud sigh of relief.

"Finally, un!" I grinned.

"Shut up brat. You'll alert the whole Sunagakure to attack us." Sasori-no-danna scolded.

The plan was for us to sneak into the village unnoticed (thanks to Sasori-no-danna's many slaves **(3)**) and I battle the Kazekage while Sasori-no-danna and Hoshi stayed outside of the gates. I hoped that the Kazekage would put up a good fight. It'd be such a disappointment if he only lasted a few mere minutes. As we approached the gates, Sasori-no-danna's slave had appeared and let me in the village. I created my clay bird and flew into the air. By the time I reached near my destination, the sun had already been setting. Using my scope, I counted three guards watching the skies. Reaching into my sack, I pulled out three small clay spiders. Heh, the sun had set. It was already night time. Sasori-no-danna wasn't going to be pleased...I threw the spiders down, did a hand sign, and they came to life. They had landed swiftly on the buildings right behind the three sky guards. Very swiftly, they crawled onto the guard's faces. I grinned, finally having the chance to show case my art. I did my signature hand sign.

**BOOM!**

Ahh...what a beautiful sound that is...With the guards eliminated, I controlled my clay bird to head straight towards the building where the Kazekage's office was. I jumped off the bird, landing on the balcony.

"Infiltration: Successful, un." I stated.

I grinned at how this was all too easy. Whoops. Looks like I spoke too soon. The Kazekage seemed to have appeared in front of me. Finally, some action. I reached into my sack, smirking. The Kazekage's eyes widened a bit, then he controlled his sand to quickly whip at me, afraid of what I was up to. I was too quick for him though, and jumped onto my clay bird that still hovered in the sky. The sand hastily chased after me. My hand-mouth quickly got to work, chewing on the clay that I had grabbed when I reached for my pouch. Soon the sand grew quicker and quicker, about to catch up. I growled and tried to form a way to get rid of the sand. Right when the sand was about to stab right through me, my bird turned upside down and shot back to where our previous direction was. The Kazekage got tricked, but he quickly manipulated the sand to tail me again. I headed right for the ground and just when I was about to meet with the pavement, my bird turned 90 degrees and we were flying just barely above the ground. The sand collided with the pavement, but was still following. I made a turn, the sand followed me. I looked at my hand-mouth, it was almost done chewing.

"Almost there." I stated.

My plan to stall for time is working. I turned to look ahead of me and gasped. There seemed to be another trail of sand in front of me. My bird accelerated and shot for the sky. Soon there were three trails of sand following behind me. They looked like the Kraken's tentacles. Soon their ends sharpened and they looked like long, curved spears. For some reason, the Kazekage withdrew the sand's chase after me. They surrounded him.

"He's pretty good." I had to admit.

It seemed that he was planning another approach. Pillars of sand erupted from the village, facing upward. After awhile, they formed together and began a huge tsunami of sand, looming over the village and threatening to engulf me.

"As expected, he has the advantage. This could get ugly."

A giant demon claw made of sand reached out to grab me, though I maneuvered my clay bird to get out of the way. My left hand reached into another pouch full with clay. My right one was almost done. After a few seconds, they finished and I molded the clay into six tiny little birds. When the demon sand claw reached out to grab me, I flew passed it. It began to chase me once again.

"Now the real show's about to start, hm."

When the demon sand claw reached to follow me once again, I threw the clay birds in my right hand at it. They exploded right at the sides of the demon sand claw's "arm". It didn't seem to be fazed though. Two more explosions went off in various places. I flew closer to the Kazekage and chuckled darkly.

"There!" I shouted, throwing three more clay birds at him.

A new demon sand claw reached out to crush them, but one of them flew into its "arm" and exploded. The demon sand claw broke apart and fell off while the other two exploded in two of the pillars of sand. Gaara seemed to be thinking. Probably analyzing my abilities. I plunged both my hands into the two pouches of clay, the hand-mouths chewing its contents. From the look in his eyes, I figured he's figured everything out. Again the demon sand claw tried to crush me. Before it could I had escaped once again, just in time for both my hand-mouths to finish my creation. A strange new bird appeared on each of my palms. I flung it at the demon sand claw and they transformed into bigger versions, both flying and flapping their wings. From their wing design, you could tell that these were faster than the first birds I used. I made a hand sign, preparing. The bird circled around the demon sand claw's fingers and down its "arm", aiming for the Kazekage himself.

He seemed to have noticed and tried to make the additional sand smack them out of the sky. He should've noticed what I was doing. Sadly he didn't. I held the hand sign closed to my chin.

"Katsu!" I yelled.

And just like that, the bids exploded, forming a whole explosion of smoke.

"Gaara!" I heard another person yell from the sidelines.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed that the Kazekage had formed a sphere made of sand, with him inside. To allow him the ability to see, there was this eyeball that floated next to the sphere.

"Exactly like an eggshell protecting the yolk. Still, it's amazing that he was able to block that attack, hm." I thought.

I was too busy thinking about it that I didn't notice sand rising from behind me until it formed a shadow over my head. I looked up, oh shit. The thing was like an enlarged demon sand claw, except this time it was about to swallow me whole.

"Desert Prison!" exclaimed Gaara.

"This is dangerous...,hm."

I was trying to move my bird as fast as I can to escape the demon sand claw from engulfing me. Turns out I wasn't fast enough and the claws closed, making me crash into them. The sand wrapped around me and my clay bird. The sand formed into a sphere.

"Hm!" I did my Katsu hand sign and the edge of the sphere exploded, creating a hole, and a way for me to escape. I fell down, head first. Some sand shot towards me, my eyes widened in shock. It caught me by my foot all the way to my knee and swung me into the air, throwing me towards the sphere where I was a few seconds ago. I grimaced; it opened its claws, like a mouth opening to swallow you up. I then threw some clay at it, making the mouth swallow that instead of me. An owl like bird was also formed and I rode on it instead. The sphere soon shot a trail of sand after me, the "mouth" opened up, forming into some demon paws. Again they chased after me.

"That sand is pissing me off, hm." I frowned in distaste.

That frown's corner soon curled up, turning it into a smirk. As the small trail of sand shot after me first, I turned the bird upside down to reverse directions again. This time the sand paws tried to smack me out of the sky. I whirled around them, escaping their clutches. The small trail of sand was starting to get on my nerves. I did some tricky spirals and curves and turns but it just mimicked them. When I was caught off guard, it encased around my left arm. He slowly reached out his arms. My eyes widened and trembled, afraid of what he was going to do. Slowly the sand crept up my arm and near to the point where it was at my shoulder. My right arm reached from out of the pouch. I directed towards the long trail of sand that led to my arm. I flung out my arm and out came a long clay centipede, wrapping itself a safe distance from my arm around the sand.

"Ha!" I did the Katsu hand sign.

The centipede exploded. No effect. Dammit! Before I had time to react, the Kazekage's outstretched arm's fingers tightly clenched, forming it into a fist.

"Desert Coffin."

The sand painfully squeezed my arm. Blood oozed out of the grains of sand. My bird hurled itself into the city below us. Beads of sweat poured down my face. I tried not to yell out in pain. Instead, I smirked, trying to show him that he couldn't get me to scream in agony and admit that it hurt. As I turned around the corner of a building, I had gotten sick of the sand clenching itself to my left hand. I gritted my teeth and then pulled with all my might at my left arm, severing it. Now that I had gotten rid of the sand, my bird rose up in the sky.

"Not bad, hm."

Is this how Hoshi felt when she had her left arm missing? It was just plain annoying, just having one arm that you could use and move. Suddenly I felt an even more wave of pity for her. But I quickly dismissed that, trying to focus on the matter at hand.

I was disappointed that I lost an arm, but at least he put up a good fight. I see. The sand he used to crush my arm had greater speed and power than regular desert sand. My eyes rolled to his direction, examining him to see what he'd do next. Then my eyes widened. The small trail of sand shot up to try and stab me. I dodged out of the way. I remember!

"Absolute defense." I looked at the sphere, who now had a big gap so that the Kazekage could see through his own eyes.

When the sand couldn't get me, it circled around, waiting for its chance to taste and soak in my blood. That sand was his absolute defense. In short, that hole is from the sand he used to crush my arm. My right arm reached into my pouch again. I let out a slight chuckle. I only had a little bit of clay left. I glared at him while he glared at me. My hand-mouth chewed the clay. The small trial of sand struck down at me like lightning, me barely dodging it. I seriously underestimated him. Again the sand tried and again it failed. This continued on for seven times. My hand-mouth finished, I pulled my creation out, it being perched on my palm.

"Being interrupted from below is gonna kill the fun. Plus..." I looked over at the Kazekage, "I'm sick of looking at your impassive face." I said, being quite frank and honest.

I hurled the sculpture at him. It stopped midway in the sky and grew larger. Much larger. His eyes widened from the sight, realizing what I was planning. It quickly descended into the middle of the village below us. He looked down, glaring and mouth agape. I make my exploding dolls by eating clay with my hands and combining it with my chakra. My 'specialty' contains my highest level of chakra, C-3. Its explosive power is my finest art!

The Chuunin from below were surprised and confused at my finest creation.

"What is that?"

"What the Hell?"

"This is bad! Everyone retreat!"

A dark grin was plastered on my face, "Too late."

I made my signature hand sign, "Un!"

And the clay doll grew a bright yellow light, the explosion covering the whole village. Though the explosion couldn't harm any of it. The Kazekage had covered the whole village with his sand. He was panting, great, I've worn him out. This should be easy.

"Okay, within range." I stated.

He seemed confused as I raised my hand sign near my ear. Then he looked to his left and my clay bird was right next to him. His sand hurriedly reached up to protect him.

"Katsu!"

The explosion went off. Though he managed to cover himself with the sand just in time. Perfect.

"Thought so. That special sand guards you right away, hm." I explained the fact aloud.

Even though he was inside the sand sphere, I could hear him panting.

"But..." I half closed my eyes in amusement, finishing the sentence in my head, "that was part of the plan."

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_**Gaara**_

I heavily panted. Dammit, I've wasted too much chakra. I better end this fight fast before I end up losing too much. Just then, I heard a crackling sound of some sort. My eyes widened. What could that be? I stared in front of me, eyes widening again. There were little holes forming in the front part of my defense sphere. What...? Why would this...? Before I could finish my thought, mini clay spiders crawled out of them. No way...he couldn't have...

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_**Deidara**_

You may have managed to crush my left hand, but I took the opportunity to eat some of your sand and mix it with my clay. That moment that you used that sand to guard yourself, it was the end of the line for you. Everything went like I planned.

"Art is a blast!" I made the Katsu hand sign and the spiders exploded.

The Kazekage was unconscious and fell downward from the sky, head first. The ninjas that were spectating tried to rescue the Kazekage while some were shooting arrows at me, missing horribly. Not killing him was more difficult than I thought. My bird flew to where the Kazekage was falling and he gratefully landed at the end of the bird's tail, making the bird wrap its tail around him to make sure he wouldn't fall off.

"Mission...accomplished, un."

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><p><strong>(1) -<strong> This is something only Prince of Tennis fans would get. I was writing this during the time I was chatting with glitterthorn and we uhh...-shifts eyes- got..."carried away" with soda...and in Prince of Tennis, the main character Ryoma Echizen is obsessed with the drink Ponta. It's kinda like Fanta but it's not real (to my knowledge). So I just added that for the kick of it.

**(2) -**Thank you means "arigatou" in Japanese.

**(3) -**I don't know what to call them, and I was thinking about Eyeshield 21 when I wrote that bit so I decided to just call 'em slaves (like Hiruma with his many servants).

This is like, the longest chapter I've ever wrote (4,357 words). Sorry if I bored you to death there. But honestly, it was fun to write! Mostly because I was watching Deidara vs Gaara (subbed) on YouTube and wrote about their every action and direct quotes. I should do that more often. Well, I will, next chapter. Boy is that gonna be long...I think I might have to spilt it in two or three chapters. Meh...


	18. Battle to the Death

Two new people have favorited this story. So I'd like to thank them at the end. As you may have figured, this part is going to be about Sasori vs Kankuro, the extracting of the Shukaku, and Sasori vs Sakura and Chiyo. Don't worry, I'll include Hoshi in the some of the parts, since this is a story about her, but I won't let her take all the credit. This...is gonna be good…and extremely long might I add. Hell, I'll pretty sure it might reach 10K words.

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><p><em><strong>Deidara<strong>_

_"The Kazekage was unconscious and fell downward from the sky, head first. The ninjas that were spectating tried to rescue the Kazekage while some were shooting arrows at me, missing horribly. Not killing him was more difficult than I thought. My bird flew to where the Kazekage was falling and he gratefully landed at the end of the bird's tail, making the bird wrap its tail around him to make sure he wouldn't fall off._

_"Mission...accomplished, un."_

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_**Sasori**_

Where was that brat? He's kept us waiting long enough. It's already nightfall. Why the Hell is he taking so long? I sighed heavily, Hoshi took heed of this.

"Tired of waiting?"

"Do I even need to answer that?" I huffed.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, leaning on the rock she was sitting on. Before I could complain more, Deidara's bird flew down towards us. Finally.

"Our mission has been completed, un." he informed.

"You're late," I growled, pointing out the obvious, "I told you not to make me wait!"

He dodged my whipping tail who aimed at his head, "Give me a break! This guy was pretty strong, hm."

I glared at him harder, "That's why I told you to properly prepare yourself."

"And you're preparations are...?" he trailed off, looking at Hoshi.

"They're perfect!" I finished for him and answering for her, "she had plenty of extra time to work on them."

Thanks to how long you took to battle the Kazekage.

"And unlike you, she's fully prepared." I assured him.

"Hmph. Well, let's get out of here, un." he jumped off of his clay owl, landing beside me.

Hoshi hopped off of her seat and jumped next to me. We began the long walk from there, the clay bird carrying the cracked Kazekage. I looked back at the village. I'm never coming back to this village. Deidara took out his straw hat and placed it on top of his head. After awhile when we were a mile or so away from the entrance to the village, there was a rumble that shook the earth beneath us. Heh, fools. Absolute fools. They've triggered the trap. I can't believe that the quality of the ninja in Sunagakure have dropped this low that they can't even tell an obvious trap. The sound of the cave tumbling and exploding filled the air.

"Looks like they fell into your trap, Hoshi. Nice job, un." grinned Deidara.

"Ha, I can't believe what dumbass woulda fell for that," chuckled Hoshi, "Are you sure that _you_, Sasori, Master of Puppetry, hailed from that village?"

"Unfortunately...," I rolled my eyes, "Though naturally they'd fall for it. Traps are made so that people will fall into them."

"Makes sense." Hoshi shrugged and Deidara nodded in agreement.

"Oi, think that the different trails of footprint tracks worked, un?" Deidara asked.

"They were stupid enough to fall for that trap, were they not?" Hoshi stuck out her tongue.

"Good point, hm."

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We continued to travel for the whole night. We were still traveling now and we had no intentions of stopping. It was probably only 7 a.m. or so, judging from the low altitude of the sun in the sky. Suddenly I froze.

Hoshi and Deidara stopped too, looking back at me.

"What's wrong, Sasori-no-danna?" the blond asked.

"I didn't think someone would be following us." I answered.

Hoshi put her hands behind her head, staring into her hat, that still drooped down and covered her whole face except for below the nose, while doing so,"Ha? They've finally managed to find us?"

"Wait!" demanded a rough voice full of anger.

"Huh?" Deidara turned to his right.

I turned around. This kid dressed in an all black body suit with even a hood that covered his head except for his face. The corners of the hood was like that of a cat. He had on purple facial paintings on his face. His eyes narrowed at us and his lips turned into a scornful frown.

"I found you!"

Then his mouth and eyes widened a bit, looking at the Kazekage wrapped around Deidara's clay bird's tail. His face was cracking, leaking of sand. So that's how he found us. By following the trail of sand of his precious Kazekage.

"I'll be taking Gaara back now." he boasted so confidently.

"Hmph." Deidara narrowed his eyes.

I looked over at those two, "Deidara, Hoshi, go on ahead."

I jumped a few feet in front of the black clothed kid, landing with a heavy thud. He reached for the first and third scroll of three behind his back. Probably summoning scrolls. Soon he unrolled it on the floor and did the same procedure for the next one.

"I'll show you my puppet performance."

Oh? So he was a puppet user too? How nice...I'll see what they've taught the kids of this generation about puppets. Hopefully he'll put up a decent fight. He did a hand sign.

"Karasu! Kuroari! Sanshouo!"

And three puppets appeared on the scrolls. I narrowed my eyes.

"I'll say it once more. You will give Gaara back!"

"The puppet technique?"

At that, Deidara smirked, then jumped on his clay bird. Hoshi did the latter. Hoshi sat down with her legs crossed and Deidara just stood up on the bird.

"Alright! We're going on ahead, un!" he announced.

"I'm not letting you go!" glared the black clothed kid.

As Deidara flew away, he flung Karasu after the clay bird. Deidara turned around with widened eyes and mouth. Before it could hit him, I smacked my iron tail against it, wrapping it around my tail. The black clothed kid looked shocked and gasped. I held it high in the air. His mouth dropped even further.

"I don't like waiting for people and I don't like making them wait," I took off my hat, "This ends right now."

"I'm impressed you can match Karasu's speed." he admitted.

"You mean that little fly? Looks like it's stopped." I said, not impressed.

His eyes narrowed once again.

"Now I remember, hm," Deidara intervened, "This jinchūriki has some siblings. And I heard that one of them uses the puppet technique. This guy's gotta be him, un. I think his name was Kantarou...or maybe Kanpachi?"

He screamed in fury, "It's Kankurou!"

He yanked his hand, making Karasu fall into pieces. It reassembled itself and jumped at Deidara's clay bird again. And again, I swiped my tail against it, smashing it towards the sand.

"Didn't I say that I'm your opponent? Quit gawking at me and move it!" reminding them both, "You're in the way!"

"Right right. I'll head out then, hm."

Fortunately he listened this time and flew his bird away from us. Unfortunately, this kid has got to be the worst listener ever.

"Oi, wait!" he yelled, taking his eyes off of me.

I got annoyed and quickly slashed my tail at his spot. He hurriedly jumped out of the way.

"Don't make me say it again. I'm your opponent." I was losing my patience.

"I'll show you my puppets' performance!" he repeated.

He hurled Karasu and Kuroari at me and then had them hastily circle around me.

"Take this!" he exclaimed.

Soon the two puppets increased in speed, making it seem like a blurry black circle. Karasu opened its mouth and shot forth two kunai at me. I easily smacked it away with my tail.

"You're good, but..." he moved his hands, controlling the chakra strings.

Kuroari came from beneath the sand and tackled me into the sky, making me do a back flip.

"You didn't notice that Kuroari vanished." he finished.

Kuroari leaned on its back while its arms and legs propped up, using it as pillars. Then its middle unlatched, opening up and extending multiple wooden beams on each side and grabbed me in. It closed itself again once I was in.

"Get ready!" I heard him say.

I heard some puppet parts unlatching themselves and felt Kuroari sit up.

"Puppet Performance",

Soon I heard multiple knives sling open.

"Black Secret Technique!"

As he finished saying that, I heard the knives flinging closer, making a slight **bang** once it hit the wood around the hole that they inserted themselves in.

"The end." I heard him say darkly.

Little did he know...Insolent brat. Is this really what Sunagakure has to offer? I'm disappointed...Sand fell out of the gaps in the holes that the knives were in.

"Sand?" he questioned.

He unlatched Kuroari, revealing my sand clone in my stead with the knives from Karasu's limbs stabbed through various places. The sand soon lost its form and returned to its place on the desert floor.

"A sand clone?"

I emerged from my hiding spot a few feet behind him, tail up. Just as I emerged, Karasu did the same. It leaped high in the air, put its four arms in front of it, and the elbow all the way down from the wrist split in two, releasing poisonous senbon, which I barely needed to dodge. Kuroari flew in from behind me. I didn't even need to look. I just swatted it away like an annoying fly. As I countered his every move, more panic and worry appeared on his face. Pretty soon, beads of sweat trailed down his face. Getting nervous, are we? Kuroari and Karasu separated all their limbs, knives sprang forward and he hurled them at me. Again I slashed them away with my tail. This was way too easy.

"What's wrong? Done already?" I taunted, bringing my tail forward like a scorpion.

"I'm just getting started!" he bluffed.

Again Kuroari and Karasu circled around me. Karasu's elbow joints split and poison gas balls flew out. They landed inches in front of me. When they met contact with the sand, they immediately spouted poison gas.

"Poison Fog, Blind Spot Destroyer." he yanked back his arms, making both of the two puppets shoot out poison senbon into the fog.

When the senbon stopped firing, wind blew away the poison fog. It revealed me still alive. The only thing that was different was that poison senbon surrounded me.

"Done now?" I smirked, though he couldn't see it.

"Impossible! How could you stand in that cloud of poison and be okay?" he asked quite angrily.

"Keeping people waiting any longer than this goes against my policy." I avoided his question, "Now, it's my turn."

I shot my tail forward, aiming to stab him in his heart. He yanked his left arm back and Sanshouo leaped in front of him with its shield already up. My tail hit the shield and it bounced back. He seemed shocked for a moment, then smirked again. Already doubting your skills? There goes the last chance, if any, of you defeating me.

"Sanshouo's got the strength of an iron wall," he boasted, "It can even withstand the impact of a thousand rocks."

He chuckled darkly. Probably thinking he's got the upper hand now. Nonsense, even if your defense could keep me away, it's only defense. All your offensive puppets are useless against me. So you can't win the battle even if that does you any good. But that's only an "if". Your defense doesn't stand a chance against me.

"You won't be able to put a single scratch on me."

"I agree, the defensive power of that puppet is of the highest level," I began to lecture him, "But, it also has a weak spot."

"Don't bother!" he grunted.

My tail shot forward. Before it could hit the shield, it curved upward, making it seem like I missed. Then I brought it down and it banged on the screw that connected the shield to the puppet. The shield flew towards the sky and flipped. He gasped and stared at the shield. I took this chance to try and smash him with my tail. He jumped out of the way just at the last second.

He screamed as he was still in the air, "I-impossible!"

He landed, glare more fiercer than ever, "He discovered Sanshouo's weakness with one glance?"

When he was distracted with his thoughts aloud, I tried to stab him again, this time I succeeded. It made a hole through his clothes and his hands clung to the side of my tail. When my tail was too high of an altitude, he flew off, landing in the sand head first.

I decided to give him a few words of wisdom, "No matter how sturdy a puppet seems, it's only as strong as its weakest joint.", he clutched the spot where I stabbed him and stood up, "Well then...are you ready for the finale?"

Who taught this kid how to fight? He was hopeless. You'd think he'd have a brain if he was a ninja...He just kept on attacking blindly and aimlessly, right in the open too, even if he had no chance of winning. Even if you'd have no chance, you'd at least try to come up with a plan to secretly catch your enemy off guard and destroy them like that. This kid was just attacking out in the open, as if beckoning for me to smack it right out of the sky, and hopefully for my sake, into his heart so he can die already.

He used Karasu and Kuroari to fire kunai at my right and left at the same time. When will he ever give up? Or at least put up a decent fight? This was boring. And he was making me waste my time on him too. I circled my tail around me, circling it so quick it looked like a white blur, deflecting all kunais as they landed harmlessly on the ground.

"You've got a lot of skill, but you messed with the wrong guy." I declared.

Karasu's head shot up from the sand and opened its mouth. Before it could fire any more, I whacked it down to the ground. Hopefully it'll stay down this time. I could tell from his expression that he wondered how I could read his every move and even his hidden weapons.

"As for those puppets and their hidden poison weapons," I stabbed my tail in the ground and hurled it up once again, this time bringing Kuroari with it, "I can see right through them!"

I smashed all three of his puppets apart with my tail. He gasped in surprised yet again.

"Karasu! Kuroari! Sanshouo!" came his desperate cries.

I chuckled darkly, "You look confused. You're thinking, "How did he read my attacks so easily?" Am I right?," at the last part my voice was practically cackling in amusement, "Karasu, Kuroari, Sanshouo. The designer of those three battle puppets is none other than me!" I revealed.

His eyes widened in shock and remembrance.

"Looks like I've ended up making them wait a bit. But I couldn't resist fighting against my cute little successor **(1)** and these hand-me-downs. I haven't had this much fun in a while." I continued.

"Then, you are...the genius designer who created the puppet squads? Akasuna no Sasori?"

"Even a whelp like you knows my name? I'm honored."

"You deserted the village over 20 years ago. Why are you doing this?" he shook.

"What's the point of asking that right before you die?" I raised my tail.

He still shook, even more fiercer than before. Then his eyes enlarged a bit when he realized what had actually happened. Before he could say anything, he fell to the ground, gasping for air as if his lungs had failed him, which it probably had thanks to me. He struggled to lift his face up to talk, wincing from the pain. Again his eyes enlarged when realization hit him like my tail had when I stabbed him with it and its poison.

"The poison has started spreading. You're finished!" my tail shot forward to stab him, ending his life for good.

He seemed to want to live badly, for he tackled Kuroari's dismembered head at my tail to direct it elsewhere.

"Hm?" I was startled he actually managed to still be able to move his puppet.

One of the arms of Kuroari raced to finish me, its blade gleaming in the sun. I tilted my head up and it cut the end of my mask instead.

"You're only causing yourself to suffer more. But since you want to live so badly, I won't finish you off," I receded my tail back into the Akatsuki cloak, "Though that poison will kill you within three days." I turned 180 degrees and started walking towards where Deidara and Hoshi went.

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After a few minutes, I'd got up with them.

"Ah? Was he really that strong for you to take longer than usual?" Hoshi questioned.

"Oi, welcome back Sasori-no-danna, un."

"No. It was just fun toying with my cute little successor and those hand-me-down puppets."

Deidara stared blankly at me while Hoshi cringed, one eyebrow raised while the opposite eye glared with her mouth turned into a scowl, her hand in front of her as the fingers twitched.

"Cute. Little. Successor? (un)" they both said.

Before I could ask anything, they both laughed. Deidara put his hands on Hoshi's shoulders to support himself and Hoshi grabbed her stomach as if it'd split apart if she laughed even more. I glared at them. They just laughed even harder. I sighed at their childish immaturity. I thought they'd never stop laughing but I was proven wrong after...10 minutes. Deidara wiped his eyes of his tears from laughing.

"Ahh...good one, Sasori-no-danna, un." he placed his hands on his knees.

Now it was Hoshi's turn to lean on Deidara's shoulder for support. I just glared at them the whole time.

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_**Hoshi**_

After calming down from Deidara and my laughing outburst, we both sat down on the bird back to back. After an hour or so, we finally arrived at the cave where the extracting of the Bijuu was. Deidara and I jumped off from the bird and started walking side by side next to Sasori-san.

"Let's go." said Sasori-san.

We leaped down from the mini-cliff and jumped into the river of some sort. Using basic chakra control, we walked on water. When we arrived at the boulder with a seal on it, Deidara made a hand sign and the red kanji on the seal grew bright red. The boulder created rumbling, making the water sway a bit as it lifted itself up. As we entered into the cave, I was thankful for the coolness, which was even more cool than it was suppose to be because of the shade and lack of sunlight. Deidara's bird landed in front of the cave.

Leader-sama was in a Jutsu that allowed him to be in the cave even though he weren't physically there.

"You're late. Prepare yourselves, now." commanded Leader-sama.

Konan had taught me a few days ago how to extract the Bijuu so I wouldn't fuck up the process and have Leader-sama give me the most excruciatingly painful death. I mentally thanked her for that now.

"The jinchūriki was stronger than I thought." was Deidara's excuse.

The opening to the cave closed behind us. Now that there was absolutely no sunlight, the cave's temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Deidara's clay bird dropped the Kazekage on the ground in front of us and then disappeared. Leader-sama's figure stepped forward and stopped when it was in front of the body. **Tiger. Snake. Rat. Ox. Dog. Ram. **With a cry, Leader-sama slammed his right palm down in front of where he stood. The location behind him rumbled and soon rose the Demonic Statue of Outer Path **(2)**. The three of us immediately removed our hats.

"Assemble." Leader-sama demanded after the statue stopped rising.

Almost immediately, all the remaining Akatsuki appeared on each of the fingertips of the statue, except the four of us. They were in the same Jutsu that Leader-sama was in. We hurriedly jumped to our spots.

"Now, let's begin." stated Leader-sama.

Leader-sama transported to his spot and did a hand sign. The mouth of the statue opened and dropped something.

"This is going to take us three days and three nights." Leader-sama informed us, "Everyone be careful with the body. I also want Zetsu to keep watch on the area outside. Use your longest range."

"_I know._" Zetsu-san replied.

"Three days?" Kisame-san asked, "Shouldn't we give it more time since Orochimaru is no longer here?" he tilted his head.

"Hoshi is able to take his place. Start working on it now." Leader-sama answered.

"That's right." agreed Itachi-san as he closed his eyes and made the hand sign.

"Fair enough." said Kisame-san and mimicked Itachi-san.

Everyone mimicked them, "Let's do it, un." added Deidara.

Once everyone did the same, a green orb of light appeared below us. It stated the kanji of our (with the exception of me) rings. In the mouth of the statue, a blueish fog-like substance appeared.

"Sealing Technique: Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals" declared Leader-sama.

The substance formed into numerous dragons, all leaping towards the Kazekage. When they had made contact, he was lifted up in the air and the dragons disappeared, leaving behind a white gust of wind.

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A day has passed by and we were still far from done with the sealing. The substance has engulfed the Kazekage in a massive sphere and now his chakra was leaking into the liquid-like substance from his eyes and mouth. As more of the red chakra flowed into the statue's mouth, the statue's eyes opened depending on how much of the chakra was absorbed.

"**There are enemies closing in on the base.**" Zetsu-san informed, breaking the silence.

"Enemies?" Deidara opened his eyes.

"**And they seem to be fairly powerful. One of them is called Maito Gai.**" Zetsu-san went on.

"Who's that?" questioned Leader-sama.

"A skilled Konoha jounin who uses taijutsu," Itachi-san answered for Zetsu, "Don't take him lightly."

"That wild animal again, eh? We'll use that technique." remarked Kisame-san.

"All right, Then let me go. I've had a hell of a time finding my Jinchuuriki and it's starting to piss me off." fumed Hidan.

"No. I'll go. I've got a bit of a score to settle with him." Kisame-san disagreed.

"That's fine. The technique suits you better anyway, considering you have the greatest amount of chakra in the Akatsuki, Kisame." agreed Leader-sama.

"Indeed." Kisame-san chuckled.

"Even so, I'll need about thirty percent of your chakra."

"My, my. It looks like I can finally get even with him for kicking me."

"**There are more coming.**" Zetsu's voice rang with slight annoyance.

_Twitch._ Jeez, why are they so persistent? The Kazekage's life was already ending right before us. It'll be useless to save a corpse.

"It's been a bit crazier this time around, Deidara." Leader-sama's eyes rolled to meet Deidara's.

"W-well, this jinchūriki was stronger than the other two, un." Deidara stammered.

"I tried to tell you, your techniques aren't good for stealth missions." Sasori-san's voice was full of annoyance and impatience.

"Heh, well you didn't seem to mind Hoshi's trap from early. In fact, you're the one who came up with the idea of using it, un." Deidara retorted.

"What did you say?" roared Sasori-san.

"Shut up the both of you!" Leader-sama was getting tired of their bickering.

"Just focus on the technique," he sighed, "Who else is going?"

"Can I go this time?" asked Hidan.

"**It's more Konoha shinobi.**" said Zetsu.

"Tch." Hidan scoffed and lost all interest.

"It's decided then. Itachi." Leader-sama called.

"Hai." came Itachi-san's reply.

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"Itachi has made contact with the enemy," announced Leader-sama, "Kisame is already fighting."

A few hours after that announcement, the eyes of the statue were almost all open. Soon, Itachi-san and Kisame-san had opened their eyes, signaling they were back from the Jutsu. Leader-sama seemed to notice this and opened his eyes as well.

"The technique has ended? We've bought enough time for now. That's good enough. Well done Itachi, Kisame." he complimented them.

"How about a little gratitude, considering that the bodies you sacrificed were _my_ subordinates." Sasori-san glared.

"Hmph. You should be thanking me," Leader-sama closed his eyes in thought, "Thanks to my Shapeshifting Technique, they were able to become full Akatsuki members, if only for a short time. Almost done."

I narrowed my eyes at him, obviously displeased with his remark. I tried to shove my feelings back to the deep caverns of my mind, trying to focus on the technique instead. Though what he said made it harder to even do just that.

"Zetsu, clean up those two we used for the Shapeshifting technique."

"_Roger._" Zetsu got to the task.

"Itachi, brief us on the enemy's numbers and any special abilities they have." he ordered.

"They're moving in a four-man cell consisting of Konoha's Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki Uzumaki Naruto, and the Sand's senior councilor, Chiyo."

"Hm?" Sasori-san looked up in surprised but then quickly looked down with eyes that said he was thinking in thought.

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"We're about to enter the final stage." Leader-sama affirmed.

"What should we do about those annoying flies?" asked Kisame-san.

"**They were faster than I thought.**" admitted Zetsu.

"Not a problem. We've delayed them enough. That and we have a backup plan." Leader-sama looked at Deidara.

"Meaning some of us will have to finish them off, un." Deidara nodded with pleasure.

"Let's hurry and get this done. We've got some guests on the way. And we've got to make sure we're ready for them." Sasori-san told the both of us.

"That's right. We need to prepare a good welcome." my small smirk had malice written all over it.

"They're rather annoying, aren't they?" Kisame-san sighed.

"Tch, man, we haven't even found our jinchūriki yet..." Hidan grunted.

"Settle down. We'll complete our mission soon enough." Kakuzu reassured him.

"Enough with the idle chatter. Focus!" ordered Leader-sama, "I won't forgive anymore screw-ups from now on."

I inwardly rolled my eyes. He's the one who's always starting the conversation anyway...Hypocritical asshole of a damn leader...Who does he think he is, our mom? And he never forgave us in the first place. What the fuck was he talkin' bout 'forgive anymore'. The eyes were about to be completely open. Finally, took long enough.

"Almost there." stated Leader-sama.

Again with him starting the conversation. About a few minutes later, a red orb appeared at the mouth. The process was finally over. The blue substance subsided and all the red chakra was formed into that red orb. One of the eyes had grown the iris and pupil completely, representing that the Shukaku was finally done being extracted from its host's body.

"It's finished." Leader-sama narrowed his eyes.

The Kazekage, who was in the air a moment ago, fell down to the ground since the substance no longer held him in the air. No longer was he breathing, for he was dead. I stared at him with cold eyes, no feeling of sympathy for him.

"Good grief." Sasori-san stared at the corpse.

"It ended up taking three days and three nights, un. Thanks to Hoshi." Deidara closed his eyes once again.

"It's exhausting every time we do it, isn't it?" Kisame-san said everyone's thoughts aloud.

Hidan rubbed his shoulder, "Seriously! That took forever."

"Good work everyone." uttered Leader-sama.

One of the eyes began to move around as if searching for something. It must've gave up because it had closed just a few seconds later. The other eyes followed in pursuit, leaving all closed closed for now.

"It's gotten noisy outside, hasn't it?"

"It seems that they've made it here." I scowled.

"Which group, un?" Deidara asked, "Was it the one that Kisame-no-danna was holding up? Or is it..."

"**It's both of them.**" Zetsu opened his eyes.

"So they both made it here at the same time. However...it's unfortunate. They're a bit too late." Leader-sama said.

"There's one more jinchūriki here, right?" Sasori-san chuckled evilly, "Don't think poorly of me Itachi." he chuckled again.

"So then, it's about time we go. It's getting a bit noisy outside after all. And we have to finish up our work here too." Leader-sama was getting extremely irritated of the noise.

"**Exactly**." Zetsu agreed.

"What are we going to do about those guys outside? Well, we don't even know if they can make it inside or not. Don't underestimate them." Kisame-san told us.

"You should know." retorted Itachi-san.

Kisame-san laughed, "Well, I acknowledge their brute strength."

"Sasori! Deidara! Hoshi! Take care of the guys outside." Leader-sama ordered.

"So that's how it's going to be after all, hm."

Leader-sama added, "But take the jinchūriki alive."

"I know." Sasori resisted rolling his eyes.

"The rest are dismissed."

"Let's go." Hidan said to Kakuzu-san.

Kakuzu-san grunted in agreement and they both undid their Jutsu.

"Well we should go too." Kisame-san said to Itachi-san.

"Itachi," Sasori-san called out, "Just what type of person is the Jinchuuriki for the Nine Tails?"

Itachi-san glared at Sasori-san. Sasori-san did the same. It would've went on for hours if Leader-sama had not been sick of it.

"Tell him." he hissed.

"He's the one who screams and charges first." he finally revealed.

"Hm? What the Hell?" Sasori-san grumbled.

"Couldn't you be a little more specific, hm?" Deidara asked.

Instead of answering him, Itachi-san just undid the Jutsu, leaving no trace of him behind.

"Oh my..." Deidara exclaimed.

"Well, that's that." were Kisame-san's last words before he too undid the Jutsu.

Sasori-san glared at the spot where Itachi-san had stood, "Tch."

"I'll leave the rest to you." Leader-sama nodded to Sasori-san.

"Yeah..."

"We know." Deidara and I had malice and sadistic written all over us.

"Cheh, this'll be fun." I smirked.

"I'll wait to hear from you again." Leader-sama did hand signs and just like the others, he disappeared.

With Leader-sama gone, the statue quickly vanished in a poof of smoke. We jumped off and landed next to each other. I sighed as we waited for them to burst in.

"They're slow, hm," Deidara's narrowed eyes opened a bit, "If they're coming in, I'd like it if they came quickly, hm."

We looked at Sasori-san for a sarcastic remark. Surprised when we got none, I wondered what he was thinking about.

"What's wrong, Sasori-no-danna? I thought you hated being made to wait, un." I nodded in agreement.

Deidara got bored and went over to sit on the Kazekage's corpse. I narrowed my eyes at him. Even though he was dead and our enemy, I still felt that it was disrespectful. I was about to go over there and smack him upside the head before Sasori finally answered, coming back from dreamland.

Sasori let out a groan of displeasure, "I hate it."

I growled in impatience. When the fuck were they gonna get here already? We've already had to endure three days and three nights of waiting. This waiting was seriously gnawing on my nerves. I was about to go over and break the rock myself just to get them to hurry their asses up. Though before I could move a step, the task seemed to have been done for me. Four shinobi jumped inside. An old hag and a pink haired bitch on the left of us, a blondie and a masked silver haired man on our right. They scanned the place, most likely for the Kazekage, and Blondie and Pinky gasped while Silver glared at us. Soon the Blondie averted his eyes to the Kazekage and...well...Deidara...sitting on him. He began to tremble while his face slowly transformed in rage.

"It's 'bout time you guys got here." I frowned in displeasure.

"So then, I wonder which one is the jinchūriki." Deidara wondered aloud.

Blondie's pupils turned into slits. Maybe he was the jinchūriki? He began trembling and twitching in rage. His iris soon became red. His teeth sharpened and the whiskers of his cheeks seem to deepen. He clenched his fist so hard I thought that his fingernails would penetrate through his skin. He let out a shriek.

"You bastards! I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

"The one who screams and charges first..." Sasori-san repeated.

"Looks like we've found him." I confirmed.

"That's what it looks like, un." Deidara enjoyed his rage.

"You son of a bitch! Where're the Hell do you think you're sitting?" he screamed.

I looked at Deidara with my eyes narrowed teasingly, "Yeah Deidara, get off the poor man or this one's just gonna have to kill you."

Deidara smirked and looked up at me, "Oh boo hoo. That is so sad."

I returned the smirk, but then it lowered, "But seriously, get offa him you fatass."

"There's no mistaking it. That's the jinchūriki." Sasori-san interrupted before we could argue.

Apparently Sasori-san seemed to have wanted us to save our rage for the fight with our enemies instead of ourselves.

"The first thing he'll do is scream and charge at you. Itachi actually described him quite accurately, un." added Deidara.

"Gaara! How can you be asleep at a time like this?" the jinchūriki yelled.

Did he just seriously say what I thought he said? When he got no reply, he shook again and gritted his teeth.

"Stand up!" he shouted.

Pinky looked at him with concern and pity. So, she's like Misaki Suzu huh? Her eyes resemble hers...I might have fun destroying and tearing this bitch up after all...

"Gaara!" Blondie tried again, "Oi, Gaara! Are you listening? Stop it already!"

He stepped forward and reached his hand out.

"Enough Naruto!" Silver's voice boomed.

Blondie stopped dead in his tracks. He hesitated but listened in the end anyway.

"You should already know."

So, they can't stand to see his misery anymore huh? Well I was hoping for a whole show of Blondie just ranting and yelling and we can knock him out after he gets tired of ranting and extract his Bijuu that way. But sadly I was wrong.

"That's right. You get it don't you? He's been dead for a while, hm." Deidara's eyes widened with sadistic bloodlust.

I couldn't blame him, I myself was just _itching_ to tear Pinkie apart. He patted the Kazekage's cheeks.

"And you've been using him as a chair ever since." I rolled my eyes.

Blondie's hair spiked up. His eyes full of fury. A killing intent illuminated around him.

"Oh?" Sasori-san finally snapped out of his silence, probably daydreaming again, "He's definitely the jinchūriki."

Pinky's eyes finally snapped out of their gaze at Blondie and shot towards Sasori-san, gasping.

"Give him back. Give Gaara back you bastards!" Blondie raged in fury.

He couldn't take it anymore and charged forward. In a flash, Silver appeared in front of him, stopping him from attacking Deidara. The jinchūriki stepped back, arms spread out and face in confusion and rage.

"Calm down," he hissed, "If you charge right in without thinking, we're all dead."

His growl intensified. Sasori-san looked over at the Kazekage.

"What's wrong, Sasori-no-danna, hm?" Deidara asked.

"I'll take him. It seems that this jinchūriki wants to take him back." Sasori-san answered.

"Looks like it, hm." agreed Deidara.

Silver examined all of us, probably thinking about what our abilities are and tactics on how they can defeat us. They were even more foolish than I thought. They seriously thought that we could be defeated by the likes of them?

"Sasori-no-danna, hm." started Deidara, "You might get pissed at me for saying this, but I'm going to fight the jinchūriki."

Sasori-san glared his eyes at him, "Each of us gets our own. Don't get cocky Deidara."

I rolled my eyes, "Too late for that."

Deidara ignored me, "With art, you must constantly seek greater and greater stimulation or your ability to appreciate it will dull. I've heard rumors that the Kyuubi jinchūriki is pretty powerful. He'll be perfect for my art, un."

"What? You call those explosions 'art'? Art is something that endures the test of time beautifully and gracefully. True art is eternal beauty." argued Sasori-san.

Each of our opponents seemed confused and angered at their argument, especially Blondie. He looked as if he was about to explode from his anger. All these two did was ignore all of them and continued arguing about art. So much for saving all that rage towards our enemies instead of ourselves.

"Eternal beauty? Danna, I respect you as a fellow artist, but art is something that blossoms for an instant before withering away, un." Deidara responded.

"What did you say?" Sasori-san was getting angry at his point of view and constant bickering and disagreeing.

They both had a glaring contest. The enemies looked beyond confused, with the exception of the old hag. I took notice of her, for these shinobi to have taken her with them, she must be greatly skilled.

"Wh-what's up with them?" Pinky stared in horror.

She was seriously getting on my nerves. In very single way she reminded me of Misaki Suzu. I clenched my teeth and fist, resisting every fiber in my being to pummel her to dust.

"Deidara, apparently you don't understand what true art is." Sasori growled.

"That would be you, danna." Deidara replied.

"You bastards!" the jinchūriki tried to get their attention.

Not surprisingly, he failed.

"Eternal beauty is the only true art." Sasori-san nearly shouted.

As much as I love eternal beauty, I'd have to disagree with that. Art is something...beautiful, and creative, that expresses human emotions **(3)**. It could be eternal, fleeting, music, paintings, sculptures, poems, plays, anything really. But I had to admit, I had to agree with Sasori-san on eternal art being better.

"That's absurd!" Deidara remarked, "Art is beauty that lasts for just a moment."

He opened his mouth to say more but a screech stopped him.

"Stop screwing with us!" from none other than the jinchūriki.

He reached into his pocket to pull out a scroll. Unwrapping it, it summoned one of my personal favorites, the windmill shuriken. Grabbing it in the center, he tossed the scroll aside and charged. Jumping, he threw the shuriken at Sasori-san. Before it could hit, his tail was in front of him in an instant and the shuriken bounced off, planting itself in the ground. As expected, Sasori-san didn't even need to look. The looks on the others however, were of shock and fear.

"Are you trying to piss me off?" Sasori-san asked nonchalantly.

"That's why I said that this would probably piss you off, un!" Deidara defended himself.

Sasori's tail twitch up and down, then its sharp point pointed at Deidara, "You should know what happens when I get angry!"

I crossed my arms, looking at the enemies to try and get more information about them. When I looked over at Pinky, her eyes shook with fear. I smirked, she's more easier to crack than I thought. Though I can't underestimate her, they did bring her along. I looked at her gloves. They had dust, the dust that would rub off of rocks. Underneath the dust you could see there were slight scratches. Not very noticeable. Earlier, the boulder had been smashed to pieces. So she was the one that broke it? Must've pinpointed chakra control to make her punches exaggerate her actual strength. So she's probably the best at chakra control in this group.

I looked over at the old hag. She kept staring at Sasori-san for some odd reason. What's her relationship with Sasori-san? Maybe...

"What do you say, Deidara?" Sasori-san pierced through my thoughts once again.

He had lifted up his tail. I could see the purple poisonous liquid drip down from the tip, waiting for Sasori-san to stab through Deidara so it can spread through his body.

"Hmph," Deidara got up from his 'chair', "To me the essence of art is..." he looked at his hand-mouth.

It had spit out some clay, which he morphed into a clay bird sculpture. He looked pleased with it. Then he threw it up in the air.

"...explosions!" he finished.

He made a hand sign and the bird grew in size. It spread its wings out and let out a cry. The others looked electrified as it came to life. When it landed, it ducked its head, picking up the Kazekage in its mouth.

Deidara looked at Sasori-san, "It's completely different from your silly puppet shows."

Ouch. I knew that Deidara was gonna get killed for that one. No one said that to Sasori-san and lived. Sasori's tail curved around him and headed straight towards Deidara, aiming for kill. Before it could reach its target, Deidara's bird saved him. It flew high in the air in flight as Deidara jumped on.

"Later danna, Hoshi, un." Deidara called out.

He looked forward, then down at the jinchūriki and smirked. To taunt him, Deidara made his clay bird swallow up the Kazekage, leaving only his feet to stick out. It flew out of the cave, leaving only the enemies to watch. When it left, Blondie had contorted in rage. He closed his eyes and fists so tightly I thought they'd explode from his wrath. Instead he began running out of here like a mad man, chasing the clay bird.

"Freaking Deidara acting by himself." Sasori-san complained.

With Sasori-san furious that he lost his prey, the jinchūriki, his opponents wouldn't stand a chance against him.

"Wait! Damn you!" I heard Blondie scream.

"Naruto!" now Silver has started chasing Blondie.

Right before he could exit out of the cave, he stopped, "Naruto and I will take care of the guy outside. Sakura and Chiyo-baasama, I'll leave this guy to you. But don't take any unnecessary risks. Wait for Team Gai to come back!" he ordered.

"Got it." Sakura replied, which I just learned the name of.

With that, he left to chase after Naruto. As I watched him jump away, Sasori-san heaved a deep, heavy sigh.

"I thought you retired a long time ago." tilting his head.

I knew that they know each other. Now its' time to find out what their relationship is...though I have a pretty good idea...

"I had a sudden desire to see my grandson's face." she explained.

Okay, that answered all my hunches and guesses. Sasori-san blinked. When he did, his eyes afterwards widened in a maniac way. This startled Sakura, for she gasped like she was about to have a heart attack. She gulped. I grinned like a maniac, this was gonna be so awesome. I'll finally experience that event again, of beheading Misaki Suzu. Except this time...I'll rip her to shreds too. She saw the bloodlust in my widened azure eyes. She gasped again, except even more frightened, if possible, and took a step back, hands in front of her like a defensive position.

Chiyo noticed, "Sakura, don't be frightened," and walked forward, "I'll fight him. You stay back."

When Chiyo stopped in front of Sasori-san, I took this chance and grabbed a kunai from my weapon pouch. Clutching it in my hand, I charged at Sakura. She wasn't expecting this a bit, so her defense wasn't all that strong. Right when I was about to slash her eyes out [because those were what made her remind me of Misaki so much], she hurriedly reached inside her weapon pouch and grabbed a kunai to stop me from doing so. She winced when my blade was inches away from her face. She was losing in the battle of strength. To stop me from cutting her face she jumped to about 50 feet away from where Sasori-san and Chiyo were fighting. I smirked, I purposely did that so she could move a far distance away. Now I had nothing to hold back, seeing as how my weapons might've actually affected Sasori-san's fight, with me always making a big scene with them and moving around so much.

Chiyo reached inside her big sleeves. When she pulled her hands back, she stretched her arms out. Darkened kunai were floating in the air, held by chakra strings, all lined up in a row.

"Flying Blade Manipulation!" she exclaimed.

She let go of her chakra strings and blue chakra enveloped the kunais. Each directed them in front of Sasori-san. He raised his tail in defense, but Chiyo moved her hands. They all bounced off of Sasori-san's tail, but it was still flipping in midair in the same spot. Some had cut his cloak before they all landed on the ground.

"If you're going to oppose me, then I have no choice." Sasori-san ripped his cloak apart, revealing the rest of Hiruko.

Sakura's eyes trembled with fear yet again. This time there were beads of sweat rolling down her chin. Hiruko had a shield that covered his whole back. It looked like a devil or some other demon, with Hiruko's tail stretching out of it. Sasori-san positioned Hiruko in a dog-like stance, arms and feet apart on the ground.

"Will you become a part of my collection along with that brat, Chiyo-barrio **(4)**?"

"Wh-what is that?" Sakura trailed her eyes off to look at Hiruko.

"That's a puppet. What a clever one you are..." I rolled my eyes, sarcasm dripping in my voice.

She jumped back, seeing as how I was all 50 feet away from her at first and now I was so close to her that I was breathing on her ear. When she was still in the air, I threw my kunai at her. Her green orbs widened in shock. Before it could hit its target, she used her kunai from before to deflect it.

"That isn't Sasori's real form." Chiyo sounded disappointed.

"If that's true, then I think I see what you're getting at." Sakura suggested.

"Correct. That is a puppet." Chiyo confirmed their beliefs.

"And this is a battle. So pay attention!" I pressed my kunai against Sakura's throat.

She was too easy to sneak up on when she was distracted. Her eyes enlarged once again and she jumped sideways. My kunai had still managed to cut her. Blood was dripping down her neck from the horizontal red line. I licked my kunai free of blood and grinned. She backed away and turned to Chiyo once again.

"But then, where's his real body?" she asked, "A puppet master usually pulls the strings from behind."

"You really are dense aren't you? How did you manage to become a shinobi? And you'd think that you'd be smart, I mean, with that large forehead of yours anyway." I teased.

"What did you say?" she growled and raised her fist up 'threateningly' as fire thrashed in the background.

Chiyo's answer snapped her back to seriousness, "His real body is inside. Puppet masters are poor at close-range fighting. It's easy to leave openings when controlling the puppet. In other words, that puppet is a way around that. The puppet becomes their armor, as well as their weapon. That is Sasori's 18th puppet, Hiruko."

"Chiyo-baasama, you recognize it?" Sakura asked.

"It's a magnificent masterpiece. Why wouldn't she recognize it? It truly is a fine puppet, one of my best creations yet. An offensive and defensive puppet." I could tell Sasori-san grinned inside Hiruko.

Hiruko's tail soon twitched, "Do you know how I add to my collection? First I tear out the organs. Once I've washed it clean, I drain all of the blood. After I've made sure it won't decay, I fill it with weapons and traps, and make its addition official. Just as Baa Baa said, Hiruko is part of my collection. And with you and Chiyo-baabaa, I will have exactly 300 puppets in my collection! This...is my art!" his voice rang with passion.

"Art, huh?" Chiyo repeated.

"Chiyo-baasama?" Sakura looked at Chiyo.

"When he was in the Sand Village, he created many impressive puppets and was widely regarded as a genius. But his real interests lay in transforming humans into puppets and collecting them."

This grabbed Sakura's attention even more. And I, myself, was a bit interested in hearing a bit more about Sasori-san's early life.

Chiyo continued, "He claimed that it was 'art'. That puppet Hiruko was once a shinobi of our village. Sasori turned him into that. Puppets that maintained their original form are called human puppets."

"Human puppets..." Sakura repeated.

"And you're next," Sasori-san nonchalantly stated, "You will become one of my works."

Sasori raised his tail as I raised my arm. I swung at Sakura, she barely ducked. I cut a little of her hair off though.

"Hiruko is a battle-type puppet. But regardless, we must first separate it from Sasori."

"So what should we do?" questioned Sakura.

Sasori-san and I both glared as Chiyo continued on, "His additions to the puppet are the most dangerous part. As long as we don't know what he's done to it, we can't tell where and how he'll attack."

"But you know how that puppets works. We have the advantage." reminded Sakura.

Chiyo nodded, "That's why I said that I was going to go by myself at first."

"At first?" Sakura and I both repeated.

"Oi oi oi, she's facing _me_. She's _my_ opponent." I growled.

Chiyo continued to ignore me, much to my annoyance, "But now I don't think that will work."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked again.

"Its form is a bit different from the Hiruko I knew. It never had such a large shell on its back. So the defenses have probably increased. And this is the first time I've seen that left arm. In which case, he may have changed the most important weapons as well."

Furthering my anger, Sakura once again asked, "What should we do?"

"In order to defeat Sasori, we must destroy Hiruko first."

Before she could continue, I grew extremely impatient beyond this point and pulled out a scroll similar to that of the Jinchuuriki. As it unfolded, a windmill shuriken appeared. I grasped it in my hand and threw it at Sakura with great force. She gasped and stepped aside. It grazed her arm, cutting it deep. She winced in pain as she grasped it with her right hand. Lucky for her she dodged, or she wouldn't even have a left hand. I took the opportunity, ran over to where it had landed, picked it up, and slashed at her with my oversized shuriken. She barely managed to dodge, jumping back away each time.

"You ready yet? You know I hate to wait." Sasori-san reached for his mask.

"Don't worry, we'll defeat you!" declared Chiyo.

Chiyo charged forward, kunai in hand. With a grunt, Sasori-san ripped off the mask of Hiruko. Opening its mouth, Hiruko shot out poisonous senbon. Chiyo gracefully dodged them, jumping from left to right and doing twists and back flips, even deflecting some with her kunai. After awhile the rain of senbon stopped.

A moment of silence reigned, except for me slashing my kunai at Sakura.

"You saw through it. Alright then." he took out his left arm. The capsule-like thing flew off, right in the middle of Chiyo and Sakura. I continued to slash at her.

"Die!" Sasori-san exclaimed.

I retreated back, jumping on the far side of the wall of the cave. The rods on the capsule fell off and split in half. When they did, more poison senbon flew their way. Sakura did the same thing as Chiyo. When the senbon stopped, Sasori-san was getting frustrated. Thousands of poisonous senbon littered the floor. Sakura just stared at Sasori-san. When she had a chance, she charged forward. I jumped in front of her, landing on my knee and hand. Her face said it all, she had forgotten about me.

I grinned sadistically, "Miss me?" and slashed out at her once again, "Don't forget. I'm your opponent. Not the puppet master over there." I glared.

She took a step back. Again our fight replayed. I kept swinging my shuriken at her and she kept dodging and jumping back. Chiyo had charged at Sasori-san. Sasori-san raised his tail and was planning to stab at it her face. Just before it met its 1 inch mark, the tail stopped. Sasori was taken back in surprise.

"Baa baa!" he screamed in rage.

Sakura froze at his outburst and had stopped jumping back. Big mistake. I kicked Sakura in the stomach, sending her flying to the cave wall. She coughed up some blood. I jumped in front of her. I grinned a grin more sadistically than I ever had as I raised my windmill shuriken just above her head. I pulled it down the fastest I can. A millisecond before the blade connected with the first few layers of the skin on top of her head, she got pulled towards Chiyo somehow.

I glared in wrathful fury, "NO!"

Some of her hair got cut off and her head was now bleeding, making her smooth pink hair stain with crimson blood. She was now standing next to Chiyo, but not for long. Without hesitation, she charged forward at Sasori-san.

"Now Sakura! Crush it!" Chiyo yelled.

Sakura raised her fist and pinpointed her chakra into that spot. The sound of cracking echoed through the cave. Chiyo and Sakura looked horrified. I smirked, wiping some blood off my mouth.

"Is that all you got?" I screamed.

I stretched my arms out, protecting what was behind me. Sasori-san wanted to keep his puppet body a secret, which is one of the reasons why he hid in Hiruko most of the time. I valued that secret, which was why I had jumped in at the last second. And...for some unknown reason, my body and mind just reacted on its own, wanting to protect Sasori-san for some reason. Sakura had managed to break at least more than half of my ribs and my stomach along with my liver, though it was worth it, protecting Sasori-san and his secret. Sasori-san seemed as speechless as they were, for he was silent with wide eyes, until he thought of something to say.

"Ho...shi..."

My knees were about to give in to temptation about the thought of just passing out. Though my pride refused to let them even buckle and show weakness. My eyes half closed and my vision blurred. I was about to fall forward until I stopped, Sasori-san had moved in front of me so I could lean on him to support myself. I leaned my right arm on Hiruko's hard wooden back while my left hand hovered over the hole that showed practically half of my digestive system. I was never really good at healing or Medical jutsu, though at least I'll be able to poorly seal it closed. The pool of blood circled around my feet and staining Hiruko's Akatsuki cloak. Concentrating the chakra to my hand, green chakra enveloped it, painfully and slowly healing my wound. Sakura seemed to snap out of her daze first and did the same again, only this time, it hit the wanted target. The force of the punch blew me away, knocking me against the wall, making me vomit out blood. I coughed up blood even more when Hiruko's tail smashed against the wound horizontally. Though the part that did hit me was covered in shawls, therefore no poison infected me.

Bits of Hiruko scattered and flew everywhere. Hiruko's head landed near my foot, but where was Sasori-san? I scanned my half closed eyes to see where he could've gone. Sakura heavily panted from the energy it took to smash both me and Hiruko. My eyes landed on a bundle that was covered in a black shawl in the middle of what used to be Hiruko's back. Before Sakura could uncover it, the bundle leaped over, landing right next to me. I looked up at the bundle, his face was still covered, head hung low.

"I...I..." I tried to form a sentence, but I coughed up more blood, "S-sorry...I...h-h...avee...f-failed...to keep...y-you...hidden...S-Sas...or...ii...sannn..." I shut my eyes tightly in pain.

He pushed Hiruko's tail away, shoving it aside. His cloak that still covered his back hands hovered over my injury. Only I could see the glowing green chakra that confined his hands and the hole. Since he was excellent in Medical jutsu, his progress to heal me went 50 times faster.

"Shh...," he murmured so only I could hear his smooth silky voice, "don't strain yourself by talking for now. And...to make it easier to talk, lose the -san."

For a moment I swore I heard amusement in the last part. Before I could think more of it, Chiyo shattered my thoughts.

"So you finally came out."

As she finished the last word of the sentence, Sasori finished healing me. He stood up, still facing them with their backs.

"A-arigatou Sasori-s...Sasori." I corrected myself.

"That's his real body?" Sakura gasped.

"I've come all this way to see my little grandson's face." Chiyo tried to persuade him into taking off the shawl.

Sakura started hyperventilating. I rolled my eyes, about to get up. I stopped when I saw a clothed hand reach out for me. Blushing slightly, I reluctantly accepted as he pulled me up. I averted his gaze so he couldn't see me blushing. Though he probably couldn't either way due to the shawl.

"It's been about twenty years since I've seen you, my grandson." Chiyo tried again.

Sasori held his hand up from under the shawl, palm facing up. I could see his teal colored nails. Then, his fingers twitched, and Hiruko's head that was lying on its sides jumped and faced right side up. Sakura gasped. The head's teeth chattered, jumped a little from right to left, then flew up. When Sasori was satisfied with the altitude, he made Hiruko's head lay on its side once more. The neck directed towards Sakura and Chiyo. More poisonous senbon rained down at them. Chiyo's arms danced, and so did Sakura in mid air, dodging every last one. Hiruko's head cracked in two and fell. Sasori turned to me, when he didn't say anything, I inched closer to him. As he whispered a plan in my ears, my eyes enlarged themselves and then narrowed as my lips curled upwards and I nodded.

"As I thought. Just what I'd expect from my grandma. No wonder that girl dodged my attacks so easily. She had you, who could see right through them, controlling her with chakra strings. And on top of that, you secretly put some on Hiruko's tail. But for me to not have noticed until I was unable to move the tail, you must have done it when you first attacked with those kunai. You transferred the chakra strings connected to the kunai onto the tail as I blocked them." calculated Sasori.

"Impressive, considering that I suppressed the chakra flow to the point of making the threads invisible." Chiyo commented.

"It wasn't that hard. After all, you're the one who taught me how to play with puppets." Sasori turned around.

His face was still covered with the shawl either way. His hand reached up towards the top of it. Chiyo's eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"But today, the games come to an end!" she raised her voice.

"That's the plan." Sasori pulled off the shawl.

Chiyo's eyes widened, mouth hanging open. Sakura gasped. I smirked at their expressions. The shawl hit the floor and his unkempt maroon hair bounced a little when the shawl was removed.

His voice was full of amusement, "But honestly, do you think it'll be that simple Chiyo-baasama?"

Sakura was the first to snap out of the daze, "Chiyo-baasama?"

Chiyo still wore her expression, "He's...he's Sasori?" Sakura questioned.

I couldn't help it anymore. Her constant repeated questioning that were obvious.

"No. He's not. He's Kami-sama. What do you think?" my voice was full of scorn.

Chiyo's expression was still the same, except for her mouth moving, "What's the meaning of this? He looks the same. He hasn't aged a day."

Sasori's mouth tugged in a small smile. Chiyo looked as if she was about to fall to the ground at that moment. Sakura's face was contorted in utter confusion.

"What's wrong, Chiyo-baasama?" Sasori was still smiling, "Are you so choked up that you can't even speak?"

He was obviously enjoying her appalled face.

When no answer came, he spoke again, "That's okay. It's our first reunion in twenty years."

Beads of sweat poured down Chiyo's face, her eyes twitching, "Sasori, you..."

When she was unable to speak, Sasori took over, "Want to see what else I've got up my sleeve?"

He meant it quite literally, for a scroll slid down from his right sleeve into his hand. He held it up in front of him.

"This might be even more shocking," he unwrapped the scroll with one hand slowly, "He was one of the hardest to kill and add to my collection. But that's what makes him my favorite."

His fingers that were once up in the air (except for the thumb and pinky) now tapped the scroll (along with his pinky). Purple flooded the lining of the scroll, when it was completely surrounded, a poof of smoke appeared.

"Th-that's...it can't be!" Chiyo lied to herself.

Her reaction finally changed, except now it was in an even more shocked face than before, if that was possible.

"What? What's wrong?" Sakura pestered with her questions again.

When the smoke that surrounded Sasori and me finally blew away, a new puppet appeared in place of where the scroll was.

"That's the Third Kazekage!" Chiyo choked out.

The Third Kazekage? And Sasori had managed to kill him single handedly at an age younger than 15? I'm impressed.

"The Third Kazekage?" Sakura repeated.

I swear, was this girl deaf or something? Sasori chuckled to himself. Finally Chiyo's expression had changed. Instead of confusion, now it was just grief and disappointment.

"Well? Does this take you back, Chiyo-baasama?" Sasori asked.

"Chiyo-baasama, how can the Third Kazekage...?" Sakura started to say.

Chiyo's features fell, "How terrible..."

"Then..." Sakura looked back at the Kazekage puppet.

Chiyo explained, "It happened over twenty years ago. The Third Kazekage suddenly vanished. We did everything we could, but were never able to find him. He was the most powerful Kazekage in history, but...Sasori, you did it?"

"So what?" Sasori remarked nonchalantly, "You're telling me, a retired old hag about to keel over, is going to avenge him? How admirable."

"Even if I'm retired and about to die, I just have to remember the past. I have too many regrets to die just yet. Especially when I see that my grandson has become a villain! You betray the village and have attacked three Kazekage!"

"Three?" repeated Sakura, face full of confusion.

"Orochimaru may have been the one who killed Gaara's father, the Fourth Kazekage. But I know your companions were the ones behind it! And now Gaara. And even the Third!"

"Oi oi. I don't know anything about the Fourth. I only have control over my own subordinates."

"Given that he did the exact same thing as you though, how can you say that it's unrelated?"

"It is true that Orochimaru was my original Akatsuki partner, and we accomplished a lot together."

Sakura's eyes grew bigger, "You...If you worked with Orochimaru, you must know all about him. I have a lot of questions for you."

"Sorry kid. I have to finish you two off and catch that jinchūriki. I hate to keep people waiting. I don't have time to answer questions. Now, let's do this." Sasori responded.

He swayed his hands and the Kazekage puppet was on the move. I jumped back to the side, seeing as how I would just get in the way. The puppet flew towards her with fast speed. Without warning, Chiyo yanked her back, pulling her in surprise.

"Die!" exclaimed Sasori as he forced the puppet to pull out poison laced swords encased in wood and a windmill shuriken blade on top behind the Kazekage's arm. Chiyo barely had time to block Sakura with Hiruko's tail. The Kazekage sliced the iron tail, breaking it.

"Nice one Chiyo-baasama. But how about this?" he raised his hand and brought it back down. The Kazekage's left arm shot forward, the limbs separating to replicate a satellite rod of some sort.

"Oh no!" Chiyo screamed.

"Now what?" Sasori grinned.

Millions of arms came from the rod, all shooting for Sakura. The arms became a large cord like weapon and they shot down on Sakura.

"Sakura!" Chiyo worriedly yelled.

Sasori twitched his fingers. His face showed disappointment. So...she didn't die. Yet. Sasori seemed to be thinking up of a plan.

"So then..." he twitched his fingers.

Chiyo drew back her arm, yanking Sakura out of the million arms. Before she landed, a canon-like pipe shot out, releasing purple gas. Knowing Sasori, it was poison.

"Not good!" panicked Chiyo, "Sakura, hold your breath!"

The poison gas reached Sakura and soon swallowed her whole.

"Sakuraaa!" Chiyo screamed desperately.

A few minutes went by and the poison still didn't clear.

"Sakura." Chiyo whispered.

She twitched her fingers, trying to pull Sakura out of the fog.

Sasori's features were swallowed in displeasure. I guess it's my time to help. I quickly reached into my pocket and summoned two ropes attached with kunai at each end, holding one in each hand.

"I don't think so." I flung one of the kunai of each side into the poison mist, one lower and one higher.

When they breezed passed something, I figured it was Sakura's leg and torso. I pulled slightly to the opposite direction of the two, binding her legs and torso. I smirked when Chiyo tried to pull her out anyway, failing when I tugged back. Sasori smiled, pleased at this.

"Wh-what is this...?" Chiyo scowled.

"Kunai tied to ropes," I answered, "You're supposed to deflect them, not try to dodge."

Sasori whispered, "Reel her in."

And I did what he asked. I tugged both of the ropes that laid in my hands. Chiyo wasn't putting up much of a tug. Sakura was coming straight to us.

"You're hellbent on not letting her out, aren't you?"

"Mayyybe." I stuck out my tongue with a smirk.

"It's pointless, Chiyo-baasama. She'll die from inhaling the slightest bit of poison. She's done for." now it was Sasori's turn to smirk.

My smirk turned into a surprised frown.

Sasori noticed this, "What's wrong?"

"I feel her struggling at the ropes."

"That's nothing to worry about." shrugged Sasori.

The poison slowly decreased in size as the pipe was running out. The poison was slowly lifting up. Chiyo noticed this and a small smile hung on her lips.

Sasori informed, "That's not the only poison fog." crushing her hopes.

As to prove his point, Sasori twitched a finger and out came yet another pipe spewing out the contents. Chiyo had now rushed forward to grab Sakura out herself. Soon I felt the tugging get worse. Before she charged into the gas, Chiyo stopped when she saw something. My eyes grew larger in realization, only getting one word out before it happened.

"Sasori!"

And then the explosion on the explosion tag went off, exploding even the poison gas away. Dammit! The ropes that bound Sakura broke. Sakura fell backwards from the force. Chiyo had caught her before she crashed onto the ground, her weight forcing Chiyo backwards.

"Sakura, hang in there Sakura!" Chiyo shook Sakura's head.

"Oh? Not bad." Sasori complimented her.

"Oh no, she's not breathing." Chiyo pushed Sakura onto her shoulder and gave a tap on Sakura's back.

Sakura immediately started coughing violently.

"Are you all right, Sakura?" her voice laced with worry.

"Yes." she answered her.

After her coughing fit, she looked over at Sasori, "You...I'm gonna capture you!", the volume of her voice almost as loud as Naruto's.

Sasori did not look pleased with this at all. Sakura tried to stand up but trembled.

"Even if you blow away my limbs...and paralyze me with poison, I will definitely get you! No matter what you come at me with, no matter what tricks you have up your sleeve, I'll make you tell me about Orochimaru! Got it?" she screamed.

I clapped my hands, "Valuable and inspiring speech, girl. Now...let's see if you can actually accomplish such a task."

Sasori just shrugged her off and twitched a finger, making yet another pipe pop up, this time it shot out six kunai. Sakura just stood there. She could barely stand up, let alone dodge high speed kunai shooting towards her. As usual, before the impact could land, something got in the way. Chiyo summoned two puppets that smacked the kunai away. The two puppets...one was a woman with brown hair while the other was a redhead man. They both hung their heads down as if they were ashamed of something they did.

"A man should listen quietly when a woman speaks to him." Chiyo held up two scrolls, now empty with smoke rising from them.

Sasori's eyes opened up a fraction, "Oh, those?"

"So you do remember them." Chiyo commented.

"Yeah, more or less." replied Sasori, quite unimpressed.

"The very first puppets you created. 'Father' and 'Mother'."

The puppets looked up when their names were called. I gasped a little in surprised. So those were his first puppets? They were extremely well made, even better if he was a first timer when he made them. So he really is a prodigy. But...those? Those were the puppets he was talking about? The puppets he made to resemble his parents? I thought he said they broke. Unless Chiyo fixed it and repaired them to claim as her own, since it certainly looked that way.

Again, Sakura just couldn't get enough of repeating, "Father and Mother?"

What is she? Some kinda parrot **(5)**?

"So these are Sasori's...?"

"And what do you plan on doing with those? I made those puppets. I know all their secrets. How stupid." Sasori stated without feeling.

"I wonder about that." Chiyo's eyes filled with memories.

After awhile, they started to fill with sadness and misery. Maybe she was thinking of the time when Sasori...attempted...to have his parents back...Soon my eyes drooped of sadness. The two puppets stretched out one of their arms until their hands met. Mother extending her left while Father extended his right. Then they pulled apart, fingertips that now shared the same wire.

"Sakura, stand back." Chiyo ordered.

"Hai." she obeyed and stood at the sides.

The two puppets moved forward, matching in every way. Sasori was prepared. The Kazekage pulled back his millions of arms. The arms tried to stomp them but it failed when the Mother and Father cut the arms with the wire. This continued like that until just when Mother and Father were about to cut the Kazekage. Sasori unlatched the joint that connected the Kazekage's arm with the rod the held the millions of arms right before the Mother and Father could bind him. Now in its stead was a spinning shuriken-like weapon. The only difference was that it had many more blades.

Chiyo moved her hands and out Father's arm sprang this...chain like weapon. Instead of metal chains, it was a long chain of wooden cylinders attached to each other. At the end of each cylinder had two kunais that stuck out each side. From Mother's right arm, a sword with a jagged edge popped up. Sparks went flying as soon as Kazekage's shuriken-like weapon met with Mother's sword. Father had swung his arm at the Kazekage, making the chain weapon follow in pursuit. The Kazekage dodged and sliced it in two. Another clash between those two weapons and Father's chain was chipped. Mother swung her sword at the revolving shuriken, creating sparks flying again.

Pretty soon, both Sasori and Chiyo danced with their arms in fury, moving so fast the movements were a blur. The two 'parents' faired off with the Kazekage in a blurred motion too. Orange sparks flew everywhere.

"U-unreal..." Sakura muttered.

I couldn't help but agree with her. Never had I seen such skill in the puppet technique, much less this crazy speed. After the "sparring match" ended, all three of them jumped back. Sasori and Chiyo stared at each other with great intensity. Each waiting for the other to make the next move so they could counter. The puppets retreated to their master's side. The blades of Kazekage's weapons were chipped and jagged. The bits and pieces wearing off and falling to the ground. Father's whip of kunai had barely any shards left. Mother's jagged sword was barely 5 inches tall, excluding the hilt.

"This is getting annoying. Guess I need to bring this out." Sasori made a hand sign and Kazekage's mouth opened.

Nothing came out at first. The three of us, not including Sasori, stared at it, wondering what could he be planning this time. At last, a black grain of sand came out. Followed by another. And another. Until they came out in a large group. It looked like tiny flies flying in a huge group.

"So that puppet can really use the Third's techniques." Chiyo commented.

"It's been a while since you've seen it, right? This is the reason why the Third Kazekage was known as the strongest in the village. The two of you are about to get messed up." he boasted.

"What is that?" Sakura asked.

I was wondering that myself. Why did this...dark sand...make him the most powerful of all Kazekages lived? What could it do to be so...notorious?

"The most feared weapon in the history of the Hidden Sand. Iron Sand!" Chiyo stared in awe.

The sand was now circling around the Kazekage.

"Iron sand?" Sakura was like a parrot...

"At one time, it was a technique that Shukaku's host used. It's a technique that the Third invented himself. He could mold the Iron Sand into various forms, changing it into weapons appropriate to the situation. The Third Kazekage had a unique body that allowed him to change his chakra into a magnetic field. It looks like the puppet can perform the same technique." Chiyo lectured.

"How can that be?" Sakura stared, "Even though he's using the Third Kazekage's body, it's still just a puppet. How can a doll have chakra?"

I mentally sighed, thinking to myself, "How can you have a brain...?"

"No. Human Puppets made from real flesh are different from the normal puppets like his father and mother. And Sasori is the only one able to make Human Puppets. They're made to retain the chakra they had when they were still alive." Chiyo answered.

I had to admit, that was a very nice way of retaining one's unique abilities or techniques that only they could perform, or Kekkei Genkai. Even if it was a cruel cruel fate...

Chiyo continued, "And going by that, he is able to make use of any techniques they had when they were still alive. That's a Human Puppet's greatest advantage."

The Kazekage closed his mouth as Sasori added, "That's not all. After all, they are part of my beloved collection."

"Sakura, you need to get out of here. I'll fight him by myself. This was unexpected. You don't stand a chance against something like that." Chiyo begged.

"But-" she began to differ.

"You're too slow! Iron Sand Rain." Sasori commanded the Kazekage's sand to shoot out small balls that shot out like cannonballs.

"Oh no!" Chiyo barely had time to snatch Sakura out of the way with Mother.

Sasori strained to see what was in the smoke that was caused by the Jutsu. However, he did not expect to see Father holding his two wooden arms out that split in half to create a force field-like shield with his chakra to protect Chiyo behind him.

"I see you've been messing with them. The chakra shield...Seems that he's been upgraded since he last played with me." Sasori commented.

The chakra that surrounded Father's hands dimmed to nothing and the arms had almost snapped back in place. When Chiyo moved her fingers delicately, she gasped as she tried to move her fingers again. She stood up in shock as Father had crumbled down to his knees. Iron sand had placed itself on his arms so he couldn't snap them back completely. Chiyo tried again to move Father, but she failed.

"You know you have to dodge that technique, not block it. Was letting the girl escape all you could manage? I've pumped his body full of Iron Sand. As long as I have the Third's magnetic powers, he's useless. This time, I'm going to attack both of you at once. In order to make sure I finish you off, I'm going to put it in vorpal mode." Sasori explained.

The holes that the iron sand had made when it was being shot still had iron sand in them. Now the sand had flown together in the air, forming several sharp spikes that hovered in the air, surrounding them both.

"You won't escape again. One puppet can't protect two people. What are you gonna do, Baa Baa? Who will die?" he smiled darkly.

The blades soon dropped down on them, colliding with the ground. When the dust disappeared, it revealed Mother using the chakra shield for Sakura. Both surprised, they looked over at Chiyo. She had used a chakra shield, from her own right arm. So, she had turned her own right arm into a wooden puppet's, eh? Mother's shield dropped. I looked closely at Chiyo's arm, it was infected with the sand.

"So you turned your own body into a puppet, even if it was just an arm. Great puppet masters think alike, I suppose." Sasori was amused now.

Chiyo tried to close her shield, but the iron sand was preventing it from doing so.

"I see. So that's it." Chiyo finally realized the meaning behind Sasori's words.

"Once Iron Sand gets inside, it's over. You're out of puppets. What are you going to do, Chiyo-baa?" Sasori asked.

Chiyo looked at Father, who now kneeled to the ground, unmoving. Then at Mother, who laid still like the puppet she was. There were sadness in Chiyo's eyes. She seemed to be thinking of something for a long time. Sasori couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Even if you're an elite puppet master, without puppets, you're just a regular person."

Chiyo clutched her upper arm. The one that was made into a puppet's fell on the ground. Kazekage's mouth opened again, and more iron sand began to flow out. The iron sand began to form into shapes. One rectangular prism and a square pyramid. Sasori also had the Kazekage make wings for himself.

"There's me and someone else. What should I do in this situation?" Chiyo quietly murmured.

Sasori put on a triumphant smirk as he closed Kazekage's mouth, no longer needing it for now.

"Sakura, you have to run for it." Sakura kept staring in horror at Sasori, "Sakura, what's wrong? Hurry up, I already told you! I've told you already. You can't fight that. Run while you can."

She stood up. Her eyes gazed into the iron sand. Her eyes and hands were shaking. Then she looked over at Father, and back at Mother. When she quit her staring, she clutched her fists and clenched her teeth.

"Chiyo-baasama!" Sakura called for Chiyo's attention, "Please use me!" she stepped forward in front of Chiyo.

"If you use a puppet made of flesh, his Iron Sand won't have any effect." she reasoned.

"I only have one arm now. I can't support you like I did before."

"It's okay. Maybe I don't have any secret weapons built into me like a puppet, but I have my master's hatred of losing!"

With that, Chiyo was convinced. She latched chakra strings onto Sakura.

Punching her right fist into her left palm in front of herself, she exclaimed, "Sounds good! I also have my master's hand-to-hand fighting skills!"

"That again? How lame." Sasori sighed, "Hoshi." he called for my attention.

I looked over at him. "Hai."

I smirked, since I knew he was going to commence with the plan he whispered in my ears. I stepped in front of him. Tossing the shapes aside for now, he mimicked Chiyo in attaching chakra strings on me. I clutched my windmill shuriken, preparing for a good battle. This time, Sasori had attacked first. I charged forward at Sakura, shuriken in hand. Before I could slash her, she leaped away. I reached into my weapon pouch for a kunai and threw it at her while she was in midair. Sasori pulled me back. Sakura quickly grabbed her kunai and deflected it. When she realized what she had done, I smirked. Too late.

**BOOM!**

The explosive tag had been ignited and Sakura couldn't dodge it in time. When she was knocked down to the ground, I summoned my Vigoorian Flail, one of the blades in hand. As I swung it around in my hand, I flung it at Sakura. It cut across her cheek as it flew past. Tugging it beside me, it wrapped itself around her torso, binding her. My smirk grew as her eyes did. Gripping hard on my chain, Sasori had made me pull Sakura to the side, aiming for the cave's wall at full force and speed.

"Sakura!" Chiyo had screamed.

"Is dead meat." I finished for her.

When the dust cleared, it revealed Sakura to have a bleeding forehead and arms. I yanked the chain back and pulled it towards the sky with even more force. She crashed against the ceiling of the cave. Then I threw her across the cave. With a pleasing **CRASH** I yanked her back. She landed face first 30 feet away from us. I pulled her back, making her face scratch against the cold, hard rock. She tried to stand up when I slid her to a stop, her cheeks burning of blood. When she succeeded, she tried her hardest to burst from the chains that held her back. I tightened them. She screamed out in pain. Suddenly pain shot forward from my ribs. I winced in pain, lowering a bit.

"Hoshi? What's wrong?" Sasori asked.

I clutched my ribs, shaking in pain.

"Oh. Dammit..." he whispered.

Before he could come and heal me yet again, Sakura took this chance and broke the chains apart. I gasped, she grinned at my expression. I death glared at her. She lunged at me, fist in the air. Just like that, I had ended up on the wall of the cliff, coughing up blood once again. This time around, she had kicked me in the legs so I fell down on my palms on the ground. I think I heard a crack. Shit. Then with her fist raised, she punched me in the stomach, sending me high in the air and opening my wound again. Blood gushed out like a sprinkler.

"Hoshi!" Sasori yelled.

Before he could pull me back, Sakura threw kunai in the air, cutting off Sasori's chakra strings.

"Dammit bitch!" he shouted.

As I came down, she twirled and added chakra towards her foot, making my ribs crack yet again as I shot towards the cave wall. I sat there, limp and bleeding, like a broken doll. I raised my head and leaned it on the cave wall so I could watch the battle.

"S...Sas...ori..." I whispered.

Sakura charged forward to punch Sasori before he could come and heal me. Sasori added chakra strings back to the shapes and the square pyramid's tip became sharper, like a spear's point. Chiyo charged forward as well. When the tip was just about to stab Sakura, Chiyo pulled her back, making the pyramid stab the ground until it crashed into the wall of the cave instead. Sakura didn't notice until the rectangular prism nearly squashed her flat had she not been pulled back by Chiyo.

"Eat this!" she ran and punched the prism as it threatened to crash into Sasori.

Sasori jumped back on the cave's wall, whispering "Bitch."

"I'm not done yet!" she grinned.

Sasori jumped off the wall. He grinned, pulling out the shapes from the walls and pulling it in front of him. He molded the altered square pyramid back to its original square pyramid form, making it spiral so fast it turns into a drill-like state. He pulled it towards Sakura, who jumped away as it collided with the floor. When she landed, the prism tried to smash her but again she jumped away. This happened again with the pyramid before she leaped onto the prism and used to as a boost to punch the drilling pyramid that headed towards her. It landed on the ground again. When Sakura was still in mid-flight, Sasori pulled the prism out.

"Over there?" she yelled as she kicked it away.

It hit the top of the cave, making a huge hole in the forest like meadow that laid on top of the cave. The hole made cracks in the ceiling. Soon rocks fell down on the battlefield. Sakura got into a sprinter position, right hand downwards while her feet were slightly apart and far back. Sasori wielded the prism to smash itself against Sakura, but Sakura leaped away.

"Sakura!" warned Chiyo.

She was in mid-flight when the pyramid threatened to drill her to shreds.

"Hell yeah!" she let out her battle cry and punched the pyramid away yet again.

The cave shook some more from the impact. The pyramid poked a hole in the wall of the cave that held its entrance. Rocks fell into the river. The meadow on top couldn't stand it any longer and collapsed onto the battlefield, leaving a hole at the top. Daylight spilled in the cave. Again Sasori hurled the pyramid at her. Again she punched it away. This time, Sasori tried using both at once. She kicked them away. Sasori brought them in front of him.

"That's a lot of power for a little girl." Sasori remarked.

Sakura panted heavily. Probably exhausted her chakra. She slouched forward, looking ready to collapse any minute. Sasori made the pyramid sharper and tried to stab her. She got out of harm's way, barely. Sasori called it back to his side again. A moment of silence occurred. Then he sharpened it even more, aiming it at Sakura. She side stepped out of the way. A twitch in Sasori's hand and the prism came forth. Sakura stood there and timed herself. When the prism was closer, she stepped to the side again, making the prism connect with the ground. With a battle cry, she punched it out of the way so it hit the pyramid. Sakura watched with intent eyes at Sasori. Sasori narrowed his eyes, he didn't like her examining him too closely. The corners of his lips curled in a small smirk and he changed his stance. The pyramid stabbed its sides into the prism. Chakra emitted from the Kazekage's...heart?

"Iron Sand World Law!"

Bits of sand formed into branches and soon it branched on and on. Sakura stared at it in amazement, unaware that it was going to stab her soon. Chiyo pulled her back before that could happen. Two more branches spread out to kill her, but they failed. Now branches lay everywhere. It caused some boulders to crash. One landed on Chiyo's arm. She tried to get out from under it, but it couldn't budge. Sakura had a boulder under her. Sasori smirked. I had a feeling that the fight wasn't over though. And I was right. The boulder smashed to pieces has Sakura punched it. She slouched forward, cuts all over her.

"Sakura!" Chiyo tried to move, "Sakura are you okay?"

Blood dripped from her cuts. She slumped forward and almost fell but caught herself in time. When Chiyo realized what had happened, she was too late.

"Poison!" she exclaimed.

Sasori smirked, "I told you I had plenty of moves left."

"So you poisoned the Iron Sand too?" exclaimed Chiyo.

Sakura fell on her knees. Soon even her face collapsed onto the floor.

Sasori chuckled, "Payback's a bitch, isn't it? The poison's working."

Twitching his finger, he closed the compartment that held the Kazekage's chakra.

"Soon her body will go numb and she won't be able to move. She'd last three days if I let her be, but I don't plan to!" anger and malice filled Sasori's voice.

The Kazekage charged forward and a blade shot out of his right arm.

"It's over, girl!" grinned Sasori.

"Sakura!" Chiyo called out.

Before the Kazekage had the chance to kill her, Sakura reached forward and smashed him apart. His body broke into wooden pieces. So she was playing dead...How dare she...The pieces all fell onto the ground. The branches of iron sand soon crumbled, seeing as how the user was no longer 'alive'.

Sakura leaped over to Chiyo, "Chiyo-baasama."

She lifted up the boulder to free Chiyo's arm. Sasori glared at her.

"Sakura, how...?" Chiyo questioned.

Sakura stopped glaring at Sasori and looked at Chiyo, "I used an antidote."

She looked over to a spot on the ground. I looked over too. There laying on top of dirt was a vaccination of some sort, the bottle being empty.

"When did you make something like that?" Chiyo stared in awe.

Sakura reached behind her, "In the Sand Village, when I was working on an antidote for Kankurou-san.", she pulled out another one of those vaccinations.

This time, it had yellow liquid substance inside the bottle.

She continued, "I made three of them. I used one to heal Kankurou-san. I knew that our enemy used poison, so I put the other two into syringes and brought them with me."

"I see. So that's how." Chiyo looked at the syringe.

"Right. I used one of them now. However, it will only work for around three minutes. During which time, no matter how much poison gets in my systems, it'll all be broken down into harmless proteins."

"I see."

"I couldn't let Sasori find out about my anti-venom. I knew I had a chance when he would let his guard down as he used his final attack. That's why I didn't use it until the very end. I have just one left. You should hang on to it, Chiyo-baasama."

Chiyo nodded and reached out to grab it but she trembled in pain before she could.

"Are you okay?" asked a worried Sakura.

She took off her right glove and started healing on Chiyo. Sasori continued to glare. So he hadn't heard.

"S-Sasori..." I tried to get his attention.

He didn't even hear me. My eyes fell like my heart and lowered to the ground. He was too absorbed in this fight to even notice me. I guess I should leave him alone. I raised my left arm to heal myself. It was barely working, healing just 1 millimeter of the wound per minute. I should've totally paid more attention in Medical jutsu class.

"Sakura, my left hand is okay now." I heard Chiyo say.

She flexed her hand and clutched it tight.

"Right." Sakura's green healing chakra diminished.

When she was done, she sprawled out on the ground, panting heavily. After a few seconds of that, she calmed down and made a hand sign. Then she lifted her right hand up to her left arm so that she could heal it, wincing from the pain. When she was done healing it, she stood up and stood by Chiyo's side.

"Let's go, Sakura!"

"Hai!"

Sasori stared, conjuring up a plan. Slowly he reached up to his cloak. I gasped. He isn't. Is he? Oh no. He was. He started unbuttoning it, revealing his puppet chest.

"I haven't used this one since I joined Akatsuki. I wonder how long it's been..." he took off the cloak and handed it to me.

I clutched it tightly, inhaling his wooden scent. Sakura's eyes widened. The razors attached to Sasori's back sprung out.

Chiyo glared, "He hasn't aged a day since he left."

The poisonous cord that coiled in Sasori's 'stomach' crawled out. The kunai at the end of it planted itself on the ground.

"He looks exactly like he did back then."

Sasori placed one foot on the cord and another one on the other side of the cord. The cord elevated itself, lifted Sasori higher in the air. His eyes opened in a maniacal way.

"And now we know why." finished Chiyo.

"It's actually been awhile since I used myself." commented Sasori.

"He turned himself into a Human Puppet?" Sakura stared.

The venomous poison dripped off of his cord and made a small pool on the ground beneath him. The poison that dipped his razor blades slipped down, like rain on the glass of a window.

"What's wrong? Weren't you going to finish this? If you aren't going to attack...," he raised his arms out in front of him, "I'll make the first move!"

Rods had appeared on his palm and fire spouted out. The two leaped away, hiding behind rocks.

"Hiding is meaningless!" he grinned.

Fire shot towards the rocks they hid themselves behind.

"Now, what will you do?" Sasori's voice croaked.

A few minutes passed with Sasori still firing. When it had stopped however, Sakura reached to her weapon pouch and pulled out a kunai. Doing a back flip she threw the kunai at Sasori behind landing behind yet another rock. Immediately Sasori started firing at that rock. The kunai couldn't reach Sasori however, seeing as how it melted to nothingness due to the intense heat of Sasori's fire. Sakura looked over at Chiyo. Chiyo did a back flip and landed behind another rock that was behind her first one. Sasori moved the fire to that rock. Sasori stopped firing. They both moved to a rock in the middle. Sasori immediately fired at that.

"We've got one and a half minutes left." I heard Sakura say before they both leaped away when the flames cleared.

"Die, Baa baa!" Sasori yelled, aiming the fire at Chiyo when she leapt in mid air.

Sasori hit it right on target. Chiyo would've died if she hadn't used a Substitution Jutsu. Chiyo now leapt in a wide open area. She moved her arms and out sprung the Kazekage's head.

"Take this!" Chiyo threw the head at Sasori, mouth open.

"Nice try." Sasori burned thing the before it even came close to him.

Sasori jumped down from his cord, recoiling it back into his stomach, "Just as I thought. You attached chakra threads to it during the previous fight. But the same trick won't work twice. Too bad for you." Sasori raised his hands towards them.

The fire was even more intense than the last. A few seconds after the burst of flames, Sasori stopped firing and brought his hands back.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to attack me?", the first scroll on his back disappeared, "In that case..." he held his arms out again.

The last scroll behind his back glowed bright blue. Water blasted out instead of fire.

"Water..." Chiyo started, then realized, "Sakura, move it!"

She jumped out of the water. Sakura was too slow, however, and when the water made contact with the still burning boulders, steam arose and the sudden change in temperature cracked the boulders. The force of this knocked Sakura away. Chiyo landed and the rocks from Sakura's boulder hurled at her. She knocked one away and jumped away right before Sasori's water attack got her. Sasori had turned the water into huge wide ranged streams instead of the straight and small streams from before. Turning his hand around, the streams now altered into the latter. The force of it blasted through the boulder and Sasori moved it upward towards the cave's 'ceiling'. The cloud that Sasori had accidentally hit dispersed and the cave that Sasori hit had broke. Now it broke off had rocks had fallen on top of Sakura, though she dodged out of harm's way before it could.

"Take that!" Sasori cut through the rocks that Chiyo had hidden behind with his water.

Chiyo jumped in the air and did a back flip when Sasori aimed his water at her, making the puppet master miss. Chiyo landed behind some more rocks. The last scroll behind Sasori's back vanished. The rods that the water shot out of disappeared back into Sasori's hands.

"How long do you plan on running around? All right then." Sasori made some weird movements with his body before the cord shot out from his stomach and stabbed Sakura's ribs.

When the cord stabbed the ground, Sasori let it pull him towards Chiyo.

"Are you all right, Sakura?" Chiyo asked.

"Die!" Sasori screamed.

The razor blades from behind his back started propelling.

"Chiyo-baasama!" Sakura tried to stand up.

She staggered, then jumped towards Chiyo. Her wound was bleeding and she was drained of energy. Her antidote was about to wear out soon. Running, Sakura grabbed Sasori's cord. She pulled it back so she could delay Chiyo's death. She tried her hardest to pull the cord back. But the cord seemed hopelessly endless. Spiraling, Sasori was about to reach Chiyo. Chiyo's face was right next to Sasori's propelling blades. Sakura had pulled Sasori back, the cord wasn't endless anymore.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura yelled at the top of her lungs.

She pulled Sasori back with so much force that he flew to her. Sakura raised her fist back and smashed it into Sasori's stomach.

"Sasori!" I exclaimed, then painfully regret it.

My injury was getting worse, it was barely any different than when I started healing it. I was just basically wasting my chakra. I should be out there helping Sasori! How could I be so useless? Especially at a time like this. If only I could protect him.

Sasori's puppet body smashed to pieces. The cylinder with his name on it landed on the ground. Sakura panted heavily.

"SASORI!" I yelled desperately.

Sakura fell to the ground, sitting there.

She smiled ever so sweetly, "We did it, Chiyo-baasama! We really did it!"

"Sakura...you really...," Chiyo's eyes melted with happiness.

Sakura grinned as sunlight hit her face. Why...? Why were they so happy that Sasori died? Why? I started to crawl over to him as Sakura walked over to Chiyo. I soon stopped when I saw that the pieces started to assemble back and the heart slid back in place. I don't think I've ever been so relieved in my life. His head twisted back the way it should've been.

"You did what, exactly?" his voice full of hatred.

They both turned their heads to look at him, eyes full of surprise and fear. Chiyo put her right arm forward and pulled back the sleeves, revealing only a half of her puppet arm since the elbow down to the hand got infected.

"That's right," her fingertip made a chakra string that shot forward and tugged her arm back.

The arm fixed itself onto the joint, the useless iron sand fell out. The part where it split to create the chakra shield folded back.

"I'll get you this time." she glared at Sasori.

Sakura looked back at her with wide surprise. Sasori just rolled his shoulders and 'cracked' his neck. Chiyo reached into her sack.

"This is a technique that I forbade myself from using." she pulled out a purple scroll.

Sasori stopped 'cracking' his neck to stare. Chiyo began unwrapping the strings around it.

"I thought that I would never need it again," she looked towards Sasori, "but I suppose life isn't that simple."

She threw the scroll in front of her and unwrapped it, "Let's get this show on the road." and made a hand sign.

The prints of the scroll lifted off the page with a purplish cloud. The clouds formed into shapes. Everything stared at them. Soon they became puppets that surrounded Chiyo, each one with the seal on their foreheads.

"A puppet user's ability is measured by the number of puppets they can use. Impressive, Baa baa." Sasori complimented her.

"Th-there's so many!" Sakura muttered, "Ten at once!"

"Chiyo-baasama's quintessential 'Ten Fingers'. I've heard the rumors...that those are the puppets you used to conquer a castle. Secret White Attack, Chikamatsu's Collection of 10. The works of the first puppet master, Monzaemon. That's certainly an impressive collection of puppets. But..." he used a chakra string to pull the second scroll from his back.

He held it high above his head and unraveled it with his chakra string, using his right hand to open the compartment on his right side of the chest. When it opened, chakra lit up inside of it. Then, puppets all hurled out of the scroll and the compartment burst out chakra strings that latched onto them. Sakura and Chiyo stared horridly at the sky that were soon filled with a hundred puppets.

Sasori finished, "I used these to conquer an entire nation."

Sasori hung his head low, then he brought his right hand to smack his forehead while his left laid on his hip, "This is beyond annoying for me. Just how long am I going to fight with an old hag and a little girl?" and he looked up with a deadly gaze, "And to think, I even have to use my final puppets."

The puppets all raised their weapons, "I'll give you a special showing of my Secret Red Technique, The Performance of 100."

Sakura began running to Chiyo, sliding so she stopped to face Sasori. Reaching beside her, she healed the injury where Sasori had stabbed her with his cable.

"Sakura," Chiyo called, "Your antidote isn't working anymore. Don't fight."

Sakura stared at her for awhile, then she smiled that smile. Chiyo had a surprised expression. Sakura's smile faded into a frown as she turned to face Sasori.

"By now you should understand my personality."

Chiyo looked even more surprised, but then she recovered, "That's right. You inherited that from Tsunade, too. This will be the finale. Are you prepared? Here he comes!"

Sasori brought his body forward in a fighting stance. All of Sasori's puppets darted forward. Two of Chiyo's ran forward. One of them split his head in two. Blue sparks flew as they joined together hand in hand. The black haired puppet's hand was disconnected and had a chain. The other puppet's chakra formed into a windmill shuriken between his neck and it began to spun. The first charged forward faster than the second and threw the second puppet at the army. Another puppet had a purple chakra infused sword. The fight was absolute chaos. Puppet destroyed puppet. Weapons were littered while sparks were everywhere. Sakura joined the fight with taijutsu, kicking and punching the puppets. Puppet parts were everywhere and most of them were destroyed. Chiyo seemed to be in deep thought for a moment. Sasori saw this as a chance. He instantly used a puppet to slash her arm. Blood spewed out.

"Chiyo-baasama!" yelled Sakura.

She used a puppet to smash Sasori's against the boulder, breaking it.

"Are you okay, Chiyo-baasama?" Sakura almost yelled in concern.

"You don't need to worry about me. Concentrate on getting Sasori. I'll hold back the other puppets." Chiyo raised her hand.

"Hai." obeyed Sakura.

More puppets band together. Sakura ran towards them with high speed. Chiyo's puppets assisted her, taking on the front lines while Sakura took care of the ones that snuck up on her. One of Chiyo's puppets ran beside Sakura, spitting out something.

"Sakura, use that!" Chiyo yelled.

Before Sakura could take it, several puppets attacked her simultaneously. The puppet dropped the orb like thing and Sakura grabbed it, landing on the swords and running towards Sasori once more. Sakura continued to dodge the puppets and debris that flew towards her. Finally she made it towards her goal.

"Here!" she threw the orb and it instantly grew into this piranha-like creature and burst out of the bubble, teeth sharpened. Sasori gasped as he backed away slightly. Before he could react, the thing trapped him against the wall of the cave with its teeth. For once, there was silence.

"We got him," panted Sakura, breaking the silence.

I stared dumbfounded at Sasori's puppet body.

"You can't get away now. That seal completely suppresses the target's chakra. You can no longer use your chakra strings. It's over Sasori."

I glared at them. It had to be false. Sasori would come back one way or another. He had to, he did the first time. Chiyo fell forward on the ground on her hands, exhausted. The poison was starting to take effect.

"Chiyo-baasama! Hurry and use the antidote!" Sakura ran towards Chiyo.

I watched with delight as another puppet had risen, sword in hand. In its chest laid Sasori's heart. Sasori raised his sword, Chiyo turning around with shock written on her face. Sakura reached out her hand to try and save Chiyo. Blood stained the air and Chiyo's face. Chiyo stared at Sakura, too terrified to speak. Sakura had taken the blow for herself. The blood that stained the sword dripped down to the ground next to Sakura's shaking leg. Sasori stared in bewilderment.

"Sakura..." Chiyo muttered.

Then her head drooped down in pain. Sakura looked over to her, her feature's strained with agony.

"Chiyo-baasama, are you all right? Can you still move?" Sakura gasped for oxygen.

"Ha? Still worried about her, even with that wound?" Sasori grumbled darkly, piercing her wound even further.

She backed up with pain, gasping and closing her eyes shut.

"As a medical ninja, you should understand your situation." Sasori grinned.

"Shut up." Sakura cracked.

Sasori chuckled, "You're a tough kid. But, how long do you think you can last?" Sasori dug the sword even further.

By now, Sakura was heavily panting. She tried to stop the bleeding by healing the wound, even with the sword stuck in her.

"I'm okay, Chiyo-baasama. You take the last of the antidote, quickly." urged Sakura.

"Sakura..." Chiyo gasped.

Sakura winced in pain once more, making Sasori laugh, "Looks like the poison's finally working its magic. This katana is poisoned as well, obviously." Sasori stated.

Chiyo lifted the antidote, staring at it. She uncapped it  
>and stabbed it against Sakura's leg. Sakura stared at Chiyo with magnified eyes. Chiyo still held it against Sakura's leg, waiting for the antidote to be finished transferring into Sakura's body.<p>

"So that's the antidote?" Sasori stared at it.

"Why?" Sakura questioned as Chiyo fell to the ground, "Chiyo-baasama..."

"Everyone's choosing death to save one another. How stupid." Sasori whispered so those two couldn't hear him.

I, however, caught it. I grimaced and my heart dropped even further down. It made me wonder...does he even care? Would he even care if I died? If I had sacrificed my life for him? No...he probably wouldn't...Hell, he doesn't even care about me. He didn't even pay attention to me when I tried to get his attention, to tell him about the antidote. My heart ached at the thoughts circling around my mind. Sakura grabbed the katana, Sasori tried to yank her off but failed.

"I'm not letting go." she choked out, "Chiyo-baasama." she looked over at Chiyo who laid on the ground panting.

Sasori glared at her, then twisted his arm. Pulling his arm away from the part that held the sword, it revealed that at the end of his elbow was another sword. He jumped 20 feet away. Then he ran, raising his arm high in the air.

"Die!" he cried.

Sasori saw Chiyo's hands move up. Purple blood splattered the ground and his face as Mother and Father's swords pierced Sasori's heart. And mine, when I saw it.

"SASORI!" I screamed.

* * *

><p><strong>(1) - <strong>HOLD UP. HOLD. THE FUCK. UP. Did Sasori just say "my cute little successor"? Never thought I'd live to see the day that happened. This whole chapter and the last was taken from the Anime so yeah, the only thing that I changed was Hoshi and her parts.

**(2) - **If you guys don't know what this is, it's the statue that the Akatsuki use to steal the chakra of the Bijuu's from their Jinchuuriki.

**(3) -** Ain't that ironic? Sasori claims he has no emotions yet he's in love with art. But yes, despite his claims, he does in fact have emotion. Even in the Anime where there is no romance for him. You can tell because anger is emotion. And he CLEARLY displays anger. I dunno if impatience is an emotion, but I don't think so...if so...he displays emotions _a lot_ then.

**(4) -** I'm not sure what that is so don't ask me. I just heard it like that when Sasori called his grandma that. I think I might've heard wrong, but oi, I replayed that part over 10 times just to hear what he said, and I'm pretty sure I'm not deaf (much).

**(5) -** That kinda reminded me of Sasuke, 'cause you know his hair. XD

You know, watching the fight while writing it, I had to pay attention to A LOT of detail (but during the 10 Puppets vs 100 Puppets I got lazy), and in doing so, I've noticed a few things wrong with the Anime. And I also paid more heed to what was actually going on. And that Sakura _repeats _other people's sentences _a lot._ That was getting on my nerves so I put the "What is she, some kinda parrot?" thing.

Ahh...finally done with writing this chapter. Took me...two damn days...dammit. Turns out that this chapter didn't reach 10K words. Instead...it reached 20,090. _Sighs and facepalms. _Took me so damn long. But yes now you know the reason why I hadn't updated in a day. Hope this long ass chapter makes up for it. And I'd like to thank jspike and FangWolf101 for favoriting this story. Also I'd like to thank jspike for adding this story to their Story Alerts. I've decided to write another chapter, seeing as how it can't end here. So NEXT chapter is the last chapter, then an Epilogue, and then my HidanOC story!

...Okay I'll shut up now. Watch out for next chapter!


	19. Why?

Last chapter before the Epilogue. If you guys don't wanna read it, I understand. Here's a summary: Sasori dies and Hoshi is miserable, spewing out her emotions and words. Things like that. So yes, it's just angst. Love angst. Enjoy reading.

* * *

><p><em>"Die!" he cried.<em>

_Sasori saw Chiyo's hands move up. Purple blood splattered the ground and his face as Mother and Father's swords pierced Sasori's heart. And mine, when I saw it._

_"SASORI!" I screamed."_

_*•.¸ ¸.•* *•.¸¸.•* *• .¸¸.•* *•.¸¸.•* *•.¸ ¸.•* *•._

"Wh-what?" Sasori turned back to view what just happened.

He looked to his right, seeing Mother. Looking to his left, he saw Father. Chiyo panted heavily on the ground. Sasori looked down, seeing two swords dripping of Sasori's 'blood'. His already large eyes enlarged even more in realization. A seal was underneath him.

"You let your guard down at the very end, Sasori." panted Chiyo.

"What?" Sasori glared, looking to a corner of the seal.

When he looked towards another one, blood had dripped down from his mouth.

"Now you can't move. It makes sense. No matter how much of your body has become a puppet, you still use chakra, and therefore must have a living part somewhere. Your only weak point. And the only thing missing from that empty shell you left must have been that part. It must have been the moment before my technique took full effect. You transferred it to another puppet. Your puppet bodies are just that, puppets. Your true form is the part that houses your chakra, that living core in your chest!" Chiyo explained.

Sasori cracked a grin. Sakura fell onto her side on the ground.

"Sakura." Chiyo crawled over at her, "This is awful."

Chiyo held up her left hand as it glowed in green chakra. Her right hand grabbed the katana's hilt, slowly pulling it out as her green healing chakra flowed into Sakura's skin, healing it as the sword was slowly being dragged out. Sakura winced in agony.

"Bear with me. It's almost out." Chiyo threw away the sword.

Sakura stopped wincing, though pure misery and grief lay on her features.

"Don't bother, I stabbed her in a vital point. Even without poison she'll be dead in no time. She's lost too much blood. You're a medical ninja, too. You should realize I aimed for a spot that's impossible to heal." Sasori smiled.

"I've already finished with the first-aid techniques," Chiyo's chakra changed to blue, "The technique I'm using now isn't a simple healing technique."

"What?" Sasori's eyes flickered.

"I'm giving her my life energy itself."

"You can't mean…"

"It's a reincarnation technique."

"Reincarnation technique?"

"This was a technique I originally developed for you. To save your life if you ever needed it. Only I can use it."

Sasori tilted his head. Sakura's eyes began to open, but not fully.

"With this technique, one could even bring a puppet to life." Sasori's iris twitched, "At the cost of one's own life, of course."

My eyes closed in sympathy. Chiyo must've really loved Sasori…in order for her to develop that Jutsu just to save him if he needed it. And even if he didn't need it, she was probably considering giving up her own life just so Sasori could have parents. Even if they were just puppets, it would still be parents.

"Sasori…" Chiyo panted, "But I guess that dream can no longer come true."

I bit my lip, tightly shutting my eyes now. Beads of sweat rolled down Chiyo's face. Sasori's eyes were shadowed, though his mouth was slightly open. He surprised me when he spoke.

"Idiot. How stupid. Have you gone senile, _Baa Baa_?" Sakura blinked and slowly got up.

I was sure that if she had the strength, she'd slap Sasori straight across the face.

"Yes. Are you, Chiyo-baasama?"

"That's strange. I thought your reincarnation technique was supposed to kill you in exchange for breathing life back into someone else." Sasori remarked.

"Sakura may have been critically injured, but she wasn't dead. That's why I was able to survive." she closed her eyes.

"What a shame." Sasori's eyes shadowed.

Sakura got up and punched Sasori in the face. Oh, she did do it. Sasori's face cracked. Sakura panted heavily from rage. Sasori's face cracked even more as he spoke.

"I'd stop if I were you." Sasori rolled his eyes to look at Sakura, "This body feels no pain. Keep hitting me and the only thing you'll hurt is your hand. You women just love to waste your time doing pointless things."

My heart cracked at that. It reminded me how Sasori would never love me back the way I did. I knew that loving him was pointless, but to hear it straight from his lips, it was almost unbearable. Even if it wasn't directed towards myself or that subject.

Sasori went on, "Even if my grandmother, my blood, were to die right now, I'd feel nothing."

Would you feel nothing if I died Sasori? Of course you would…why wouldn't you? I'm probably just a thing that you can play with and then toss away when I'm broken.

"My heart is as my body."

Sakura started to quiver in rage and wrath. Her eyes burned with hatred and fury. If looks could kill, Sasori would've already died.

"She'd just be one more of the hundreds, the thousands, of others that I've killed."

Her hands tightened in fists so firmly that I thought her bones were going to crack.

"Things are much simpler this way."

"Don't you understand what a life is?" her voice was louder than Naruto's, "What family is?"

"Oi, is that really something a shinobi should say?"

Sakura gasped, "Why? Why is that the only way you look at the world?"

"Sakura, that's enough." Chiyo pleaded.

"But…" her eyes fell when she saw Chiyo.

"Sasori was made into what he is by the twisted, misguided teachings of Sunagakure." she looked ever so sadly at the ground.

"Chiyo-baasama."

"Why don't you try having a body like mine? Maybe then you'll understand. A body that never decays, unbound by mortality. As I puppet, I can repair and recreate myself as often as I need. If I need other people around, I can just make them into more puppets if I think they're worthy. A collection isn't just about numbers. Quality is more important than quantity."

I cracked. My heart snapped in two. So…he'd forgotten all about my feelings on that? Or had he just not cared? He had forgot my painful misery at it? Or had he just not bothered to remember? He had forgotten how awful and miserable it was to be trapped inside a hollow body? Maybe it's just what he had said. That his heart is just like his body. I knew this was hopeless, but I tried to crawl over to him. I knew that Sakura would become too angry soon and kill him for certain. Pain coursed through my veins. I had crawled on the ground, dragging myself towards him. My abdomen was far from healed. In fact, it had barely changed at all from when I hadn't used the healing chakra.

I heard Sakura's voice go on as I crawled, "What the Hell are you?"

"If I had to choose, I'd say I'm a human who couldn't completely become a puppet, I guess. I exist as a puppet, but an incomplete one with a living human core. Not a person, but not a puppet either. I'll be dead soon. Before I go, I guess I'll do something pointless too. Consider it a reward for beating me. You wanted to know about Orochimaru, right? In ten days time, go to the Bridge of Heaven and Earth in Kusagakure at noon."

"What's there?"

"I've got a spy working as one of Orochimaru's subordinates. We were suppose to… rendezvous…there…" Sasori struggled to say.

I heard a noise of groaning. My eyes widened and I hurried up, crawling like there was no tomorrow.

"Sasori!" I yelled.

It was finally then that Sakura and Chiyo took notice of me. Sasori struggled to lift his head up to see me. I didn't care how much this would hurt right now, because I knew that if Sasori had died, it would hurt a million times worse. So I jumped over to Sasori. I nearly tripped over, seeing as how Sakura broke my legs when she kicked me. I coughed up blood. When I was near Sasori, I tried to stop. Instead, I just stumbled and accidentally fell on top of him. I didn't care how embarrassed I was or how surprised everyone looked.

"Sasori! Don't die. Please don't die. Don't die on me! You can't die!" I screeched as tears welled up in my eyes.

"Hoshi…that's…impossible…" his hand struggled to touch my cheek.

When it did, I leaned on it, no matter how cold it was. It was Sasori's. And that's all that mattered.

"No! Of course it isn't! You're a puppet! You can't die. You're eternal, just like your art! Remember? You can't die. You can't die. You…" the tears started flowing down, splattering on Sasori's face and chest, "You just can't…" I choked.

"Ho…shi…don't…be…sil…ly…" he whispered.

I took a deep breath, better now or never Hoshi. When I opened my lips again, melodic words came out.

"_Under your spell again.  
>I can't say no to you.<br>Crave my heart and it's bleeding in your hand.  
>I can't say no to you.<em>

_Shouldn't let you torture me so sweetly.  
>Now I can't let go of this dream.<br>I can't breathe but I feel..._

_Good enough,  
>I feel good enough for you.<em>

_Drink up sweet decadence.  
>I can't say no to you,<br>And I've completely lost myself, and I don't mind.  
>I can't say no to you.<em>

_Shouldn't let you conquer me completely.  
>Now I can't let go of this dream.<br>Can't believe that I feel..._

_Good enough,  
>I feel good enough.<br>It's been such a long time coming, but I feel good._

_And I'm still waiting for the rain to fall.  
>Pour real life down on me.<br>'Cause I can't hold on to anything this good enough.  
>Am I good enough for you to love me too?<em>

_So take care what you ask of me,  
>'cause I can't say no.<em>" **(1)**

When the song was over, I looked at Sasori.

"Hos…hi…" he started to say.

I leaned in closely to hear what he'd say. His next words, however, were never uttered. His lips curled up in a genuine grin. Not those sarcastic ones, or those fake ones. A genuine, happy looking one. I cried. I cried like there was no tomorrow. I buried myself in his chest. I screamed, then let my sorrow consume me.

"SASORI!" my yell echoed through the cave.

Sakura and Chiyo looked at me with dismay. I didn't care. I didn't care that I was crying. I didn't cry that they were looking. I didn't care that they felt sorry for me. I didn't care that I sang in front of them. All I cared about was Sasori. He was dead. _Dead._ And he laid in front of me, _dead._ Never to come back. Never to hear me sing again. Never for me rambling on and on about pointless things. Never to have me cooking and having food fights with him. How? Why? Those were the only questions in my head. How could Sasori leave me like that? Why did he have to die? Kami-sama, why have you forsaken me? Why did you have to take Sasori away from me? Especially when I just realized that I had loved him.

Now I knew that great, horrible feeling, of losing a bond. Losing a precious bond **(2)**. My body felt numb. My brain felt hollow. And my heart, felt like an anchor on Jupiter **(3)**. Why did he have to leave me all by myself? In this cruel, cruel world? He was the most precious person to me. The closest person that I held close to my heart. The first real friend that I befriended. The first crush that I crushed on. The first love that I had loved with all my heart. The first person that I had a bond with. A real bond. Now it was shattered. Shattered like glass. Shattered like my heart. Why?

I let out a bloody murder scream once again, piercing both Sakura and Chiyo's ears.

* * *

><p><strong>(1) - <strong>Good Enough ~ Evanescence if you guys wanna listen. Trust me, it's _extremely _good and Amy Lee has the voice that angels envy.

**(2) - **That's a reference to the chapter "Confessions" when Hoshi and Sasori were talking.

**(3) -** I don't think that some people would get it. It's describing how heavy her heart feels, and since Jupiter has the most gravity (I think) of all the planets, that makes the anchor...however times heavy on Jupiter due to its gravity.

Okay I have to admit, not my best work. It was _so _much better in my head. But the events that were in the Anime led to this and I couldn't really do much about it, so I had to work with what I had. When I was typing down Sasori and Sakura's speech, I'd noticed that it was extremely like my chapter "A Talk" and some of "Confessions". I apologize for that, because I did remember that Sasori and Sakura had this chat, since I haven't watched the episode in...'bout a year or so, seeing as how I didn't want to watch Sasori die _yet again._ So sorry about that! I realized after that (and the Sasuke and Naruto "bond speech") Naruto and my speeches are incredibly similar. _Facepalms_. I should seriously watch the episodes to refresh my memory and THEN make the chapters so they wouldn't be so similar. I feel like a copycat..._Sulk in emo corner._


	20. Epilogue

I should've done this from the start of the series…but…_Sighs_, I'm an idiot. I think I should start copyrighting my stories from now on. As I said in the first chapter, the only thing I own are my two OCs and the plot along with its contents (such as quotes). So yeah.

© 2011

I don't think I've told any of my reviewers or anyone this, but one of my _biggest _pet peeve is copying. So that's the reason why I've started copyrighting. For the people who are, you know who you are, so _stop it._ Technically last chapter was the end, but this is an Epilogue. So have fun reading.

* * *

><p>Clouds of grey scattered the dark skies. I looked up at the trees. Even they seemed dead. The flowers seemed to have subsided and colors drained, just like everyone's face in the Akatsuki. My soul felt darker than the jet black flowing spaghetti strapped dress I wore that stopped at my knees, revealing my black high heels. The grey stone etched with Akasuna no Sasori and the date of his birth and death was sitting in front of a tree facing the long forest. We were in the forest of the Akatsuki base, the same one when I had that talk with Deidara. I clutched the red rose I held dearly in my hands. The sharp thorns penetrated my fingers and crimson blood oozed out. I closed my eyes in sorrow, the blood reminded me of his hair. The hair I would never be able to run my fingers through. I felt a soft hand rest on my shoulder. I looked to the left, only to see Zetsu.<p>

"_Hoshi, don't worry. He's in a better place right now._" Zetsu reassured me.

I stared at his golden eyes. They were full of sadness for Sasori, but pity and sympathy for me. I managed a weak smile, touching his hand with my hand.

"Thanks Zetsu-san."

He smiled at me and left my side, standing next to a tree near Tobi. I still stared at the grave, eyes lifeless, like the time I was a puppet. Why did Sasori have to die like that? It wasn't fair. Someone clearing their throat interrupted my thinking. I looked towards the man. It was Leader-sama, and he stood in front of the grave, wearing a black tuxedo.

"Attention my fellow Akatsuki members," he gathered everyone's attention, "As you all know, this is Akasuna no Sasori's funeral. I just wanted to say that he was a brilliant man. He was intelligent and very useful to the Akatsuki. I trust that we all respected him and his power. He was indeed one of our strongest."

I drowned out Leader-sama's voice. I didn't feel like listening to his mini-lecture. So instead, I looked at all the members. All the members were in tuxedos except for Konan and I. Konan had wore a dress similar to my own, the only difference being that it was without straps and she had on black bracelets. My accessories consisted of the leather choker necklace and one plain leather armlet that was much like my choker, except for the cross, on my right forearm. A lot of the members looked solemn. Some of them were tense and stiff. So…even Sasori's death had affected them all. I glanced over at Deidara, his usual bright blue eyes were now dull and dark. Even Hidan's energy had died down to nothing and Itachi looked more serious than ever, his frown deepening by the second. When Leader-sama's lecture was over, he had asked if any of the members wanted to give a word of their own. I learned some very…interesting stories including them and Sasori. Soon every member went, every member but me. Now it was my turn. I walked over and stood in front of the grave. I bit my lip so hard that I could taste the blood that came out. My hands clutched the rose tightly.

Everyone was surprised when I could speak, "Sasori…was a good friend. He was beyond intelligent and a good conversationalist. Despite his flaws, such as being impatient and ill-tempered, in my opinion, he was the best man that ever lived. It was a shame that he had to die at just 35 years old. I blame myself for not being able to save Sasori. If only life hadn't had been so cruel, maybe he would still be here with us. But a part of him is, he is still here, in our hearts and memories. I beg of you all to never forget him, or what a great man he was, because a man never truly dies until he is forgotten. That is all I wish to say." I finished.

I looked over at the members, some of their expressions had softened, some were in gloom and depression. I turned to Sasori's tomb stone and laid the rose in front of it. Then I brought my index and middle finger to my lips, pecked it, and placed it on the rose's ever soft petal. The rose was fake of course, for it would never die. A token of my appreciation and admiration for Sasori's eternal art. And it was also a reminder for me, that when that rose dies, that will be the day when I stop loving the great Puppet Master, Akasuna no Sasori. I went back to my spot, listening to Leader-sama's closing remarks on Sasori. Soon when he had ended, the funeral ended. Some stayed behind though, such as Deidara, Hidan, Zetsu, Konan, and of course, me. When time passed by, more and more people left. After awhile, it was just me and Deidara, talking about Sasori, but when the sun fell, he too left. I had crawled next to the grave, leaning on it as I touched the rose's petals ever so gently.

"What're you still doing here?" a silky voice broke the silence of the night.

My eyes broadened, wondering if I was in a Genjutsu or not. I whipped around, sure enough, nothing was there. Great, I'm going insane _yet again_. Though my heart still fell, even though it knew that what had happened couldn't be true. My eyes half closed and I leaned back on the tombstone. I sighed deeply.

"Well?" I felt his hot breath on my neck.

With a startled gasp, I turned around again. Sure enough, it was Akasuna no Sasori himself. His lips just a fingernail away from mine. A small "eep!" came out of my mouth and I accidentally fell backwards. Wincing from the hard ground, I rubbed the back of my head, muttering a slight "ow". When I opened my eyes, his hand was outstretched. I hesitantly grabbed it and he pulled me upwards. I stared in awe at his dreamy chocolate brown eyes, his messy maroon hair, and that small smirk on his lips. So I did the only thing I could think to do.

I poked him.

The smirk disappeared, but then graced his features once again.

"What the Hell are you doing?" he asked.

"He…you…I…Sas-…are you really…him?" I asked softly.

"If you mean Him as in Kami-sama, sorry to disappoint but no. I am, however, Akasuna no Sasori." he grinned.

I frowned, "How can I be sure you're not a Genjutsu?"

"You can't." Sasori responded.

I smirked, "Okay okay. So, since you're so sure you're Sasori-"

"I'm not." he smirked.

"...Anyway. How'd you live? I...I saw you...you got stabbed in the heart." my eyelids felt as heavy as my heart.

He grinned, "That wasn't me."

My eyes fluttered open, "Wh-what?"

He picked up the rose that I was messing with and twirled it in his hand, "That was a spare puppet. I have many spares of myself. Do you remember the time that you turned human **(1)**?"

I nodded.

"I got turned human an hour after you did **(2)**. When we were assigned that mission, when you and Deidara were getting ready for the mission to capture the Kazekage, I placed my spare inside Hiruko while I kept myself hidden with a Jutsu that allowed me to become invisible, controlling Hiruko. I suppressed my chakra to the minimum. That's why no one figured that I was there. So the puppet that actually 'died' wasn't me." he explained.

I sighed, "You always got something up your sleeve, don't you?"

He chuckled, "Of course. How could I be the Master Puppet Master if I don't?" he caressed my cheek.

I blushed slightly of his touch. Then I felt his arm snake around my waist. I leaned my head on his chest, nuzzling in his touch and scent. Finally my heart felt at ease, like it was free of its burden. I felt so peaceful, so serene, just like the setting we were in. It all felt so perfect and like the world consisted only of us. The way he touched my cheek so lovingly, the way his eyes sparkled in the moonlight, the way he held me, it was like it was meant to be. Like we were made for each other. Like he was the last piece to my incomplete puzzle.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I have somethin' else to tell you." he smiled that sweet smile that made me melt on the spot.

I didn't think that anything else could be more perfect than what came out of his lips,

"_Under your spell again.  
>I can't say no to you.<br>Crave my heart and it's bleeding in your hand.  
>I can't say no to you.<em>

_Shouldn't let you torture me so sweetly.  
>Now I can't let go of this dream.<br>I can't breathe but I feel..._

_Good enough,  
>I feel good enough for you.<em>

_Drink up sweet decadence.  
>I can't say no to you,<br>And I've completely lost myself, and I don't mind.  
>I can't say no to you.<em>

_Shouldn't let you conquer me completely.  
>Now I can't let go of this dream.<br>Can't believe that I feel..._

_Good enough,  
>I feel good enough.<br>It's been such a long time coming, but I feel good._

_And I'm still waiting for the rain to fall.  
>Pour real life down on me.<br>'Cause I can't hold on to anything this good enough.  
>Am I good enough for you to love me too?<em>

_So take care what you ask of me,  
>'cause I can't say no.<em>" **(3)**

As I listened, I sank more and more into his chest. Soon I could hear his soft heartbeat, it was like drums to the song he sang. When it came to a close, his smile became even more resonating than before.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

The words of my answer never came. They were never spoken. Because instead of a yes, a kiss was all it took to make him feel what I felt for him. He was surprised at first, not expecting it. But soon he eased into it. The way our lips perfectly fit into each others, I knew that he was the one. When we broke apart, we stayed like that and watched the moon with its gleaming stars, dancing with the fireflies once again.

"You taste just like your cookies **(4)**." he smirked.

* * *

><p><strong>(1) - <strong>It's when Hoshi got tackled by Tobi in "Surprise Surprise".

**(2) - **Only the most _extremely _meticulous people could tell that Sasori turned human. I've dropped hints all over the place that he's been turned into a human. A couple of examples:

A. In "Surprise Surprise" he mumbled in his sleep, "Hoshi...stay..." meaning that he was sleep talking, meaning that he was asleep, which puppets cannot do. In the end of the chapter, Sasori even stated "I must've fallen asleep".  
>B. In "Cookies!" he thought "Soon I wanted to taste the noodles, wondering if it would taste as good as it smelled.", puppets can't smell, only living beings can.<br>C. In "Zetsu's Greenhouse" Sasori thought, "Hoshi elbowed me in the stomach, hard." Keyword: hard. If he was a puppet, he wouldn't have felt that, meaning he wouldn't have known that it was hard.

These are only a few couple examples. And I don't feel like going back just to list out all of 'em. Also, congratz on those who actually noticed and realized that Sasori was human again!

**(3) - **In case you guys already forgot, this is the song that Hoshi sang to Sasori in the last chapter before he 'died'. If you guys couldn't guess, this is the song that Hoshi wrote for Sasori. In chapter "New Mission" she thought "My eyes instantly landed on my instruments. Maybe...I should write a song to let out my feelings." and that song was to let out all her feelings for Sasori.

**(4) -** Cookie Vote!  
>Pein: 1<br>Itachi: 3  
>Madara: 2<p>

That is who people THOUGHT was the mystery shadow man who stole Hoshi's cookies. Sadly, they were wrong. It was Sasori! Since he was human again, he had to eat. And that was the only food that was left in the base, and he was curious to how they tasted anyway.

Anddd...this story draws to a close. Hope you all liked it! Also thank you ShyAnimeGurl44 for adding this story to your favorites.  
>Sayonara peepz.<p>

¤ Mystic Shadow Demon


	21. Note: Sequel

**Sup, peepz. **

**Yes, I am alive, finally. Never thought you'd hear from me again, huh?**

**Welp, you can't get rid of me that easily. **

**Anyway, I thank you all who enjoyed this story, whether you were there by me whilst I was writing it,  
>or enjoying it even after I finished it. I can't tell you how much the reviews mean to me, and they really made my day<br>and encourage me to write. I'm truly glad that you guys enjoyed my first story at lot. **

**So, as a gift, I present to you...  
><strong>

_**The. Sequel. **_

**That's right, the _sequel_ to Of Puppets and Love. **

**Never thought I'd ever write a sequel, but I did. So deeb0123456789 and ILOVEANIME123, here's your  
>long awaited sequel you requested. <strong>

**Sorry that it's been so long, 'cause personally, I never really thought I would even write one or continue this story. **

**So without further ado, here's the link to the Prologue:  
><strong>**_www. fanfiction. net/s/8091290/Voracity_ (remove the spaces)**

**There will be weekly updates every Sunday. **

**The account is a collab account for Ahuze and I since the story is a collab between me and her.  
>She and I are working together on this sequel, and she's what made it possible. <strong>

**So thank you, Ahuze. **

**Have fun reading, and hope you guys enjoy it. **


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